2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[mvfad]

Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be more advantageous for the team if they just made updates to make the car run better with a higher ride height instead of continuing to look for a solution to porpoising or bouncing forcing this super low ride height concept.

I know the car was built with low ride height in mind, but... it seems like a wrong concept for the current season.

[Ryar]

What's wrong? They wanted safety, they will get it...

Please, let's not act frivolously. Just don't. The repercutions of such demands would clearly favor one (maybe two) "special" team(s), that is clear to everyone and also the reason we are seeing a big polemic sign on this topic.

Salivating for what? They would have lost ground by a year while they go back to redesign their car. It's never easy to catch up on so much ground lost, even more difficult in cost cap era. One probable reason they haven't solved porpoising/bouncing in 4 four months since they found it, could also be because they can't throw money at it like before. Plus, they are constantly losing staff and cannot backfill as they have surplus staff to the budget allowed.

With the negative publicity that Mercedes handed down to FIA last year and forced their hand to fire one of their staff, FIA would be more careful in not handing any advantage back to Mercedes. Engines are frozen and they are stuck with a lowest power of the engines on the grid. Anyone dreaming of Mercedes making a dominant come back in the next 3 years until new regulations come out in 2026 are deceiving themselves.

It's not like everyone is nailing the regulations just yet, mate. After Spain, Mercedes' focus was clearly directed to next season. Call us back in 2023 and drink as many wings giver drinks as you can, it will surely be needed.

I am a huge Mercedes fan! .

Do they give fan ID cards here? I must have missed.

If they did, they would not give them for ex-"Flying Dutch" devouts.

Ex Alcoholic? Yeh, reformed, he's ok. Ex criminal, give him a chance. You used to support another TEAM, no way, you are out of here Some things will never be forgotten (in case it is not clear, just kidding)

What's happening here? Bouncing and porpoising seems to have unsettled sense of humor! (pun intended). I am enjoying the wonderful Mercedes ride currently. .

[Hammerfist]

In my layman's view, it seems to me that the car gets worse with each new update.

Even with all the porpoising issues, the car was "ok" in some races at the start of the season as it was in Bahrain and Australia with Hamilton putting some pressure on Perez. Since then, with the exception of Barcelona, it looks like they're going backward.

It's not that they're getting worse, it's that the others are getting better, AM, Alpine, Ferrari and RB especially.
Hamilton's comments during the press conference with Max are worrying. According to him, the only time they ran at a desired low ride height was in Barcelona because they had very little bouncing there. So for most of the season they have been running higher than optimal, but still have bouncing. Also he said that they cannot raise the car anymore due to their suspension. It cannot go higher. So if they are in breach of the new limits determined by the new TD when it goes in effect I guess they're getting disqualified? I don't know what they do to be honest, sounds like a lost cause.

[Mogster]

An interview with Allison. He mentions the computers can not ( not allowed) operate quickly enough to handle the problem

What does he mean by the “not allowed” part relating to rapid vertical movement of a model in the wind tunnel. Is it a technical or FIA regulatory issue?

[mstar]

With James here, i think its clear -Mike Elliots direction has not worked and they need another viewpoint to move into a direction to resolve this. It wouldnt surprise me if the senior directors of the company insisted james take some grip of this situation and go to the race(s), to see the mess himself and build a strategy how they going to get back to the top. James will be at silverstone when (apparently) a upgrade will be available

[101FlyingDutchman]

Seems like they absolutely missed out on the tech “know how” of ground effect cars many a year ago.

[Sevach]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hami ... /10323999/

[hkbruin]

Seems like they absolutely missed out on the tech “know how” of ground effect cars many a year ago.

Mercedes isn’t in the enviable position of having an old-school genius designer in Adrian Newey, who although didn’t design F1 cars during the early 80’s but was well into designing F2 cars and Indy cars was undoubtedly exposed to ground effects-based cars.

In addition, the recent “brain drain” and poaching of talent, namely former aero chief Eric Blandin to Aston Martin, probably has affected the design direction and continuity of expertise more so than the team is willing to acknowledge. Whether Mike Elliott can competently step up to the helm and lead this rudderless ship out of murky waters has yet to be determined..

[mstar]

I think Mark and James eluded to this that merc have fallen behing RB and Ferrari (and maybe others), in CFD modelling computation and other processes to bring accurate design items to real tangible parts. I wonder when merc had dominant car and designed increments to upgrade parts, the other teams where investing more into R&D equipment to make them better in the future (i.e now). Its also no secret that merc was never enthusastic about Tombazis having such a big input into these tech regs, as they see him as someone who always wanted to bring merc down a pegg or two, and never had a good relationship with him.

[pursue_one's]

[mvfad]

Imagine if they were going in the wrong direction then.

[wogx]

Why is Mercedes still experimenting on Hamilton after Baku?

EDIT: Huge risk taken by George

[ringo]

The car is better relatively to the others when the ride height is up for all. Just goes to show how poorly it operates at lower heights.
Lewis and George are doing a good job. No mistakes like the other teams. George is really showing his class and bravery.
He has been very bold. And I guess psychologically the world is his oyster now, coming from the back of the grid in a Williams.
Lewis seems to have the pace, but he just doesn't seem as sharp as he used in this car. Even from the onboard.. It's as if he cannot adapt to this new formula as well as the others. He has take more laps before he gets confidence, and that's the difference between him and George. George has about a tenth on average in qualifying. Either by set up or just confidence, or just speed. But I see where Lewis is biased towards the race all the time.
Tomorrow should be good now that Lewis is at the front. let's see what type of pace he has. Also George should be able to race his way up.
I do wonder though, where does the team go with this car. It's almost as if there are no more excuses or cards to play.

[SuperCNJ]

I personally wouldn't read too much into the qually differences between Lewis and George. It's clear that Merc are using both cars to test new ideas and both drivers have had different setups throughout the weekend. No doubt George is fast, but until they both get a car that they are both reasonably happy with I don't think we will know what pace difference there is between them, if any.

[Ryar]

The car is better relatively to the others when the ride height is up for all. Just goes to show how poorly it operates at lower heights.
Lewis and George are doing a good job. No mistakes like the other teams. George is really showing his class and bravery.
He has been very bold. And I guess psychologically the world is his oyster now, coming from the back of the grid in a Williams.
Lewis seems to have the pace, but he just doesn't seem as sharp as he used in this car. Even from the onboard.. It's as if he cannot adapt to this new formula as well as the others. He has take more laps before he gets confidence, and that's the difference between him and George. George has about a tenth on average in qualifying. Either by set up or just confidence, or just speed. But I see where Lewis is biased towards the race all the time.
Tomorrow should be good now that Lewis is at the front. let's see what type of pace he has. Also George should be able to race his way up.
I do wonder though, where does the team go with this car. It's almost as if there are no more excuses or cards to play.

Quite something of a post, coming from someone who was a staunch opposer of George getting into Mercedes team. The extent to which you went to denounce George was that, you often cited Latifi as a better driver than George until a point where Latifi had scored some points ahead of George. Your argument was that George hasn't done anything worth deserving a shot at Mercedes. Good to see a change of heart. Judging talented drivers in a bad cars is always prone to mistakes and if such judgement is also biased from a point of view that, the rookie might upset the apple cart of one's favorite driver, then it's even more of a sham.

This unwanted, difficult phase is probably good for George to embed more deeper into the team, trying to find ways of turning things around and in the process become an even better driver. Finally when he gets a good equipment, he would be in far better shape to handle championship challenges.