2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Spoutnik]

Very interesting. The heavy lift and coast start way before it was broadcasted

[AMG.Tzan]

Very interesting. The heavy lift and coast start way before it was broadcasted

Wow, didn't know that!

So they were lifting and coasting the whole race because the PU was overheating, which also means they were losing some performance because of that! That bodes well for Mercedes...

Hopefully this pace wasn't just a one-off race that just suited our car! If they manage to keep up this pace I think they can be in the fight for victories soon! Championship is long gone by now I believe...they'll need many 1-2s and some DNFs from Red Bull and Ferrari to even get close!

Monaco could be a different story though if they don't manage to find the low-speed advantage they had with their pre-Barcelona car! Speeds are low around Monaco so maybe the old porpoising car could work great around there!

[De Jokke]

One double dnf for RBR and merc is back in the game WCC wise.
RUS still has a shot at wdc, Hamilton is currently too far out I'm afraid.

Still puzzled by the race pace of ham. It didn't look staggering during the race but afterwards it seems much more impressive, however leclerc was cruising, sainz wounded and verstappen held back by russel quite some time and crusing afterwards.

I think they made a step but are still some way of winning races, let alone taking a pole.

[bluechris]

Very interesting. The heavy lift and coast start way before it was broadcasted

Wow, didn't know that!

So they were lifting and coasting the whole race because the PU was overheating, which also means they were losing some performance because of that! That bodes well for Mercedes...

Hopefully this pace wasn't just a one-off race that just suited our car! If they manage to keep up this pace I think they can be in the fight for victories soon! Championship is long gone by now I believe...they'll need many 1-2s and some DNFs from Red Bull and Ferrari to even get close!

Monaco could be a different story though if they don't manage to find the low-speed advantage they had with their pre-Barcelona car! Speeds are low around Monaco so maybe the old porpoising car could work great around there!

If they had more openings to cool the car better they would had losses in the drag so we need more races to be certain of their real speed.

[adrianjordan]

One double dnf for RBR and merc is back in the game WCC wise.
RUS still has a shot at wdc, Hamilton is currently too far out I'm afraid.

Thing is, the more drivers in the mix, the easier it would be for a run of wins to get him back in the mix.

If Lewis had a streak of 5 or 6 victories over 6 or 7 races (I know, looks unlikely, but I'm talking hypothetical) and Max, Charles and George were taking points off each other or had a DNF let's say, then Lewis easily closes the points gap and is back in the mix.

I think this will be a very, very interesting season and has a couple more twists and turns yet. Perhaps Red Bull hit their budget cap - Horner has been very vocal about it this week.

[silver]

One double dnf for RBR and merc is back in the game WCC wise.
RUS still has a shot at wdc, Hamilton is currently too far out I'm afraid.

Thing is, the more drivers in the mix, the easier it would be for a run of wins to get him back in the mix.

If Lewis had a streak of 5 or 6 victories over 6 or 7 races (I know, looks unlikely, but I'm talking hypothetical) and Max, Charles and George were taking points off each other or had a DNF let's say, then Lewis easily closes the points gap and is back in the mix.

I think this will be a very, very interesting season and has a couple more twists and turns yet. Perhaps Red Bull hit their budget cap - Horner has been very vocal about it this week.

That's an optimistic scenario, but if DNFs happen for Mercedes drivers, they plunge down further. We already witnessed a reliability glitch in Spain. Managing a run of performance improvement that can completely wipe off the deficit to the other two teams and simultaneously ensuring reliability is going to be a difficult task. As it stands, starting from the middle of the grid, there are more chances of collisions with the other cars than safely get out without incidents. Current priority should be to save the cars at the start than be aggressive and lose out, until the car out performs the top two teams. Thinking of championship contention is a moot point.

[Sevach]

One thing that needs to be considered, Spain was the most tire limited teams have been all season, this was a race about keeping the tires alive rather than outright pace, tire offsets that in previous races meant very little (things like 4 laps) were making a huge difference last weekend.

So this was a very particular weekend and we need to see more before yelling "THEY'RE BACK".

I'd say Monaco is the least reflective of the mean track average. It's the slowest and has the least similar track surface. Azerbaijan is the following race and is pretty much the the opposite with high speed being the go to. Similar track surface though. Canada will be a very good indicator as it's got a good blend of high speed straights, tight corners, fast corners and an abrasive track surface.

Similarly James Vowles indicated that Mercedes misjudged the temps for Sunday by 4 or 5 degrees, as it was hotter on Sunday than Saturday.
Both cars were compromised on cooling, with George Russell being affected by it from the start of the race.
I beleive it was lap 3 when he radio'd to see if the warnings were in fact real.
Here's the rundown by Vowles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8opTU ... ulaOneTeam

Yes, Monaco is also quite schewed towards a couple of things.
Mechanical grip is of the highest value, drag and top speed are worthless.
Barcelona is usually a great indicator but the tire usage we saw(which was a lot more extreme than what we had at any GP this season) might've compromised that.

[silver]

One thing that needs to be considered, Spain was the most tire limited teams have been all season, this was a race about keeping the tires alive rather than outright pace, tire offsets that in previous races meant very little (things like 4 laps) were making a huge difference last weekend.

So this was a very particular weekend and we need to see more before yelling "THEY'RE BACK".

I'd say Monaco is the least reflective of the mean track average. It's the slowest and has the least similar track surface. Azerbaijan is the following race and is pretty much the the opposite with high speed being the go to. Similar track surface though. Canada will be a very good indicator as it's got a good blend of high speed straights, tight corners, fast corners and an abrasive track surface.

Similarly James Vowles indicated that Mercedes misjudged the temps for Sunday by 4 or 5 degrees, as it was hotter on Sunday than Saturday.
Both cars were compromised on cooling, with George Russell being affected by it from the start of the race.
I beleive it was lap 3 when he radio'd to see if the warnings were in fact real.
Here's the rundown by Vowles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8opTU ... ulaOneTeam

Yes, Monaco is also quite schewed towards a couple of things.
Mechanical grip is of the highest value, drag and top speed are worthless.
Barcelona is usually a great indicator but the tire usage we saw(which was a lot more extreme than what we had at any GP this season) might've compromised that.

There was a big difference in performance between 2021 and 2022 Spanish GPs. While in qualifying, the best time of 2022 was just 2 seconds slower, the first stint was over 4 seconds slower than in 2021. I looked at Verstappen's stint from 2021 Vs Leclerc's stint in 2022 (before his DNF). Temperatures have had much bigger impact on tyres than the previous year or may be the compounds behave very differently. While last year, the times were coming down consistently through the stints, this year, there was a lot of drop off in performance. This is also another parameter that makes the performance comparison between Mercedes and others much difficult, other than the fact that Leclerc went in cruise mode after Verstappen's error and then Verstappen went in cruise mode once he took the lead.

[Sevach]

I'd say Monaco is the least reflective of the mean track average. It's the slowest and has the least similar track surface. Azerbaijan is the following race and is pretty much the the opposite with high speed being the go to. Similar track surface though. Canada will be a very good indicator as it's got a good blend of high speed straights, tight corners, fast corners and an abrasive track surface.

Similarly James Vowles indicated that Mercedes misjudged the temps for Sunday by 4 or 5 degrees, as it was hotter on Sunday than Saturday.
Both cars were compromised on cooling, with George Russell being affected by it from the start of the race.
I beleive it was lap 3 when he radio'd to see if the warnings were in fact real.
Here's the rundown by Vowles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ8opTU ... ulaOneTeam

Yes, Monaco is also quite schewed towards a couple of things.
Mechanical grip is of the highest value, drag and top speed are worthless.
Barcelona is usually a great indicator but the tire usage we saw(which was a lot more extreme than what we had at any GP this season) might've compromised that.

There was a big difference in performance between 2021 and 2022 Spanish GPs. While in qualifying, the best time of 2022 was just 2 seconds slower, the first stint was over 4 seconds slower than in 2021. I looked at Verstappen's stint from 2021 Vs Leclerc's stint in 2022 (before his DNF). Temperatures have had much bigger impact on tyres than the previous year or may be the compounds behave very differently. While last year, the times were coming down consistently through the stints, this year, there was a lot of drop off in performance. This is also another parameter that makes the performance comparison between Mercedes and others much difficult, other than the fact that Leclerc went in cruise mode after Verstappen's error and then Verstappen went in cruise mode once he took the lead.

Yes, i agree.

OT, because this isn't strictly Mercedes related, but Pirelli has done a horrible job spreading it's compounds for 2022.

We had a race under extreme conditions, tires were degrading after a few laps, and nobody bothered to try the C1, which just tells me it's a worthless compound.
C2 was the compound of choice for the race.
The previous race was Miami, city track, a lot of slow corners not really stressing the tires...
And guess what C2 was also the tire of choice, only on that track it could do 2 complete race distances and be totally fine (Russell ran 90% of the race on C2s and wasn't going much slower than drivers who changed tires).

The C4 on the other hand degrades so fast(even for Miami) that Ferrari balked at the idea of using it for 10 laps, considering the idea "too risky".

Pirelli made 5 compounds of which only 2 are raceable.

[cplchanb]

One double dnf for RBR and merc is back in the game WCC wise.
RUS still has a shot at wdc, Hamilton is currently too far out I'm afraid.

Thing is, the more drivers in the mix, the easier it would be for a run of wins to get him back in the mix.

If Lewis had a streak of 5 or 6 victories over 6 or 7 races (I know, looks unlikely, but I'm talking hypothetical) and Max, Charles and George were taking points off each other or had a DNF let's say, then Lewis easily closes the points gap and is back in the mix.

I think this will be a very, very interesting season and has a couple more twists and turns yet. Perhaps Red Bull hit their budget cap - Horner has been very vocal about it this week.

That's an optimistic scenario, but if DNFs happen for Mercedes drivers, they plunge down further. We already witnessed a reliability glitch in Spain. Managing a run of performance improvement that can completely wipe off the deficit to the other two teams and simultaneously ensuring reliability is going to be a difficult task. As it stands, starting from the middle of the grid, there are more chances of collisions with the other cars than safely get out without incidents. Current priority should be to save the cars at the start than be aggressive and lose out, until the car out performs the top two teams. Thinking of championship contention is a moot point.

well in 2012 vet was way down the order before a second half resurgence got him the title.
If merc can fix their car and be competitive in the next few races they have a chance of pulling close.

[chrisc90]

Any word on the controversial jewellery-gate yet?

[Mchamilton]

Thing is, the more drivers in the mix, the easier it would be for a run of wins to get him back in the mix.

If Lewis had a streak of 5 or 6 victories over 6 or 7 races (I know, looks unlikely, but I'm talking hypothetical) and Max, Charles and George were taking points off each other or had a DNF let's say, then Lewis easily closes the points gap and is back in the mix.

I think this will be a very, very interesting season and has a couple more twists and turns yet. Perhaps Red Bull hit their budget cap - Horner has been very vocal about it this week.

That's an optimistic scenario, but if DNFs happen for Mercedes drivers, they plunge down further. We already witnessed a reliability glitch in Spain. Managing a run of performance improvement that can completely wipe off the deficit to the other two teams and simultaneously ensuring reliability is going to be a difficult task. As it stands, starting from the middle of the grid, there are more chances of collisions with the other cars than safely get out without incidents. Current priority should be to save the cars at the start than be aggressive and lose out, until the car out performs the top two teams. Thinking of championship contention is a moot point.

well in 2012 vet was way down the order before a second half resurgence got him the title.
If merc can fix their car and be competitive in the next few races they have a chance of pulling close.

Easy, only have to look at Verstappen already this season, 40point deficit to now leading

[PlatinumZealot]

The key worda for me are "Championship winning car" from James Vowles in the last video.

The pace that Lewis showed is extremely promising. We can be fighting for wins.
It's 16 races left. It is possible even the WCC at minimum.
For the drivers it depends on if George can unlock the race pace. If not it will be difficult against Lewis if it is a one on one situation like Nico Vs Lewis.

[zibby43]

Yes, Mercedes, the team that has for years underplayed their pace/performance at all costs, is suddenly shifting course and overstating their performance.

All while explicitly mentioning that the positive pace was limited to one race thus far, so they have to be guarded.

Some of y'all crack me up.

Rather than cracking up a joke, could you help instead understand how they got to being 0.1s behind a car that gave them 20 seconds in 20 laps?

I’m not the one with the jokes.

Let me ask you a question: Do you believe that Shovlin and Vowles are either a) lying or b) have worse data and less understanding of it than you?

I’ll hang up and listen.

[dialtone]

Yes, Mercedes, the team that has for years underplayed their pace/performance at all costs, is suddenly shifting course and overstating their performance.

All while explicitly mentioning that the positive pace was limited to one race thus far, so they have to be guarded.

Some of y'all crack me up.

Rather than cracking up a joke, could you help instead understand how they got to being 0.1s behind a car that gave them 20 seconds in 20 laps?

I’m not the one with the jokes.

Let me ask you a question: Do you believe that Shovlin and Vowles are either a) lying or b) have worse data and less understanding of it than you?

I’ll hang up and listen.

So you don't know either.