I would consider myself a slightly better than casual F1 fan. I do watch every race, and try to keep up with possible seat changes, but I don't follow nor care about the nuances of rules as far as development of things like brake ducts. So all this stuff of teams filing grievances against other teams for skirting those rules isn't something I've ever paid attention to.

Now, based on some of the commentary from this past race, it sounds like in the off-season (or possibly during last season), Mercedes filed some sort of complaint against Ferrari, things were investigated, the results are confidential, and now this year Ferarri sucks.

My conclusion (rightly or wrongly) is this:

1. Ferrari was doing something outside of the rules last year to increase performance, they got caught, they had to remove those changes. And now they suck.

2. And this is more speculation than anything, but it makes me think that Mercedes is also skirting the rules (or outright cheating). The best way to know someone else is cheating is if you are cheating and they are still beating you sometimes.

Being a Nascar fan, I know that in Nascar all the big name teams push the limits, skirt the rules, or even cheat, so it isn't like my similar opinion of F1 tarnishes my viewpoint of the races. It happens in every major sport at the highest levels.