Merc had had six months longer to finesse the 2021 design. RB were chasing up to the final GP and even then they only won because Merc turned their engines down, LH was not 100% fit and VB is not 100% capable.
Mercedes approach to the token thing seems a little strange to me. McLaren, for example, tried different components during the last half of 2020 so that they had them in the bank and didn’t need to spend tokens on them this year. They’ve spent both their tokens on the Mercedes engine installation and so have none left for in season development.
Mercedes seem to have done the opposite; not done anything much in the second half of the season, which I believe means they have to spend tokens to introduce stuff this year.
Alfa Romeo have blown both their tokens on the new wing, but they can take non-controlled parts from Ferrari as they are a customer team.
It’s as clear as mud to me. I think we’ll see protests.