Eight Drivers’ titles, 10 Constructors’ titles and 229 Grand Prix wins later, Hywel finds it difficult to put into words the past 12 seasons.
“It's just incredible – I can’t put together in my mind what's been achieved,” he says.
“I know the hard work, I know the brilliant people, I know the amazing engineers and all the team members.
“They are so good at what they do and put everything into it. They deserve it, but even so it's quite incredible to see what's actually happened in that period of time.”
“It was over a decade of our lives. The PU has been a great product, but it has taken an awful lot of looking after.
“We don’t just put them together at the start of the year and leave them.
“It has been the continual evolution of the powertrain that I’ll remember, and the continued looking after it to make sure we don’t get a nasty surprise.”
And the team was not immune from those nasty surprises.
It may have looked plain sailing on track for so long, but behind the scenes challenges were never too far away.
“There was always something to catch us out,” says Hywel.
“Something was always bubbling beneath the surface.
“But whenever we do face hurdles, we know how to react, we know what to do and we work really hard to get on top of them. That’s the main thing.
“We have always understood that the unexpected is out there, it’s about reacting to that when the unpleasantness happens.”