In the current era, when Mercedes had the brilliant idea of "splitting the turbo" to allow it to both fit in the right place (for aero) and get cooler air, it proved such a game changer. Other teams complained, but they hadn't broken any rules, and in my mind, it's what F1 is all about, that ability to come up with new ideas to make the car more effective - Innovation. In 5-10 years we will se split turbos on road cars (unless we've all got EV's).
That's what gave Mercedes it's big leg up, and with a brilliant driving team along with their class leading engineering, they've proved to be very difficult to beat.....