The "EQ Power+" was added to increase exposure of Mercedes' electric road car models, whilst AMG was included to reflect the relationship between Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz.

[19] In order to improve airflow for better aerodynamics purposes, Mercedes changed the front suspension by having the top wishbone attach directly to an extension before connecting to an upright.

The most obvious change was the introduction of a new, narrower nose which included a never seen before under-nose turning vane to help create a type of skirt underneath the car.

[22] According to Michael Schmidt from German magazine auto motor und sport, the upgrade wasn't supposed to have major time gains (apparently only 0.1 s).

[23] During the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Mercedes experimented asymmetric brake set-up during both practice session on Friday for running greater cooling capacity on one side of the car.

[24] However, to speed up getting heat into the front tyres, the team decided to revert to symmetric layout during Saturday final practice, qualifying and Sunday race.

[29] Hamilton took pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix,[30] and held the early lead until the sole round of pit stops.

He came out behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and was unable to overtake him, giving Vettel the opportunity to build a lead which was big enough to emerge ahead of Hamilton after making his only pit stop.

[35] At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Bottas took his maiden Formula One pole position after beating his teammate Hamilton by a quarter of a second, locking out the front row of the grid.

[36] During the race, Hamilton was passed by Sebastian Vettel during the start while Bottas stayed in the lead, and they held their positions until the first round of pit stops.

[44] Bottas escaped a collision with Räikkönen at the start without damage but later retired due to an engine failure while running third which cost Mercedes a double podium finish.

[47] Mercedes subsequently lost the lead in the Constructors' Championship by 17 points, as neither of the two drivers finished on the podium for the first time since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

After a superb getaway which caused a jump start investigation, Bottas led easily from pole and dominated the first half of the race on ultrasoft tyres.

In a stunning performance, he set the outright lap record of 1:26.600 and out-qualified Räikkönen by over half a second, making it the biggest margin of the season until the wet qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix.

[62] Hamilton narrowed the gap in the Drivers' Championship to only 1 point behind Vettel after the latter finished seventh due to a tyre failure in the closing laps of the race.

This attracted some controversy as Bottas was initially ahead of Hamilton however due to Vettel having steering damage in 1st place, combined with Räikkönen being unable to pass his teammate a queue of cars were forming behind the Ferraris.

During the qualifying of the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton scored his 68th career pole position, setting the fastest lap ever at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (1m 42.553s).

[65] Formula One history was made one week later at the Italian Grand Prix when Hamilton won his 69th pole position, surpassing Michael Schumacher for most all-time.

Bottas qualified sixth, but was promoted two places to fourth when both Red Bull drivers were given grid penalties for unscheduled changes to their cars.

Bottas lost a position to Räikkönen at the start but passed him back later in the opening lap and soon after would overtake Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon to take second place in what was Mercedes' most dominating race so far as they took their third one-two finish of the season.

In a worst-case scenario for the team, Vettel grabbed pole position while Hamilton and Bottas only qualified on the third row for P5 and P6, behind both Red Bulls and the second Ferrari of Räikkönen.

[68] During the first ever wet-dry night Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton benefited from a heavy start crash involving Räikkönen, Verstappen and Vettel which forced all three of them to retire their cars.

Bottas initially dropped down to sixth place but managed to regain third position during a phase of pit stops, allowing Mercedes an unlikely double-podium finish.

[69] Having major setup difficulties after introducing a new upgrade package at the Malaysian Grand Prix, Mercedes found themselves over 1.4 s. off pace to Ferrari on Friday.

After staying ahead of the start, Hamilton ceded his lead to a charging Verstappen on lap 4 as he was suffering with a problem with his car's MGU-K system which saw him lose around 160 hp on the straights.

During the final laps he came under increasing pressure from Verstappen after having lost heat in his tyres during a late virtual safety car but managed to beat the Red Bull by 1.2 seconds in a thrilling finish.

Bottas attacked Ricciardo in the closing stages of the race after running the faster supersofts in his final stint but just missed out on the podium by nine-tenths of a second.

Hamilton made a rare mistake on his first flying run in Q1 and smashed into the barriers after losing control of his car, thus making him start the race from last position.

[79] Bottas lost the start to Vettel on Sunday which meant that he finished the race in second position, unable to threaten the Ferrari driver.

However, Mercedes gained their lowest Constructors' Championship points total since the start of the hybrid turbo era in 2014 and for the first time their drivers didn't finish the season in P1 and P2 with Bottas being third behind Vettel.