2022 Mexican Grand Prix - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Oct 28 - 30

[Wouter]

Daniel arrived at the circuit without his horse this time.

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Conclusion: I imagine it will be close with Mercedes this weekend, and not another walkaway win for RB

Schmidt from AmuS indicated the same in his COTA video review.

Last year Red Bull had massive problems getting the tyres to work in Qualifying, though. Could very well be an issue for Mercedes (or also teams like Aston Martin) this time, as they now have the more "gentle" car instead.

[MadMax]

I haven't found it dull at all, nor predictable. Seen frontrunners having had their engine go up in smoke multiple times (happened just once in 2016 and look how impacting we all found that to be) see People start out of place on many occasions, many wet races. tight fights and yes, also dominant victories. Mostly by Max but also a few by Charles.

Maybe if a team gets their car on 1 and the other on 2 in 90% of the races (start and finishing order) it will be dull, but so far this season that hasn't been the case.

The reality is that 90% 1st and 2nd for a team just hasn't happened even back in the day with the mythical MP4/4 and F2004. In 2016 it happened for Mercedes in 8 out of 21 races. It was actually more likely in 2014 and 2015 (both 11 out of 19). In 2017 it was 4 out of 20, 2018 4 out of 21. 2019 was 9 out of 21 (a good Merc showing that year, obviously), 2020 was 5 out of 17. 2022 is currently at 2017 / 2018 levels with 4 of the races to date as a 1/2 for RBR.

Interestingly, it didn't happen at all in 2021, although Max and Lewis were a 1st / 2nd combination 14 times out of 22 races. For fun, the four drivers with RBR and Mercedes finished 1,2,3,4 (in some combination) 4 times in 2021 (Portugal, France, Styrian and Brazil) with Max or Lewis P1 and P2 twice each - Sergio and Valterri didn't win in any of those four races although they took a win each that season.

There was a 1-2 in 2021... Mclaren at Monza

Wow, I forgot about that one! Thanks for the correction.

[maxxer]

Reading bunches and bunches of nonsense here lately , the merc engine never did good on heights while the honda does.

[MadMax]

Surely nothing will change here for Mercedes.

Let's say the air gives 10% less drag. Well, it's 10% less for everybody so all things are equal?

A draggy car will lose more drag, as a figure in N, than a less draggy car if both lose the same percentage of their total drag.

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[dxpetrov]

It was never about the drag that made difference in Mexico. It was about turbo. Last year, Mercedes fixed it, but still had worse car for this track.

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It was never about the drag that made difference in Mexico. It was about turbo. Last year, Mercedes fixed it, but still had worse car for this track.

What makes you sure it was never about drag? I don't believe that's correct

[Hammerfist]

Surely nothing will change here for Mercedes.

Let's say the air gives 10% less drag. Well, it's 10% less for everybody so all things are equal?

well rb have historically been very strong here with draggy but high downforce configuration.. Mercedes' performance in the corners at COTA against RB (who did admittedly run with the medium downforce wing for Max) was good.

It's also worth noting that at Barcelona, where they did run their Monaco wing and reached maximum velocity, RB's velocity traces were not anything special. It seems like that when RB go to their high downforce configuration, they lose the straightline advantage they hold in the medium and low load settings:

https://preview.redd.it/59yk24z8ou091.p ... 6458a40cb1

Credit for telemetry: dialtone

That said, seems like even in high downforce setups, RB have developed the RB18 to work well. We saw RB comfortably ahead of Mercedes and competitive with Ferrari at Singapore and Hungary with the high load wing. Throw in Mercedes' latest 3 tenths worth of upgrades and we have a very competitive w13 at high downforce tracks eg zandvoort, mexico (potentially)

Conclusion: I imagine it will be close with Mercedes this weekend, and not another walkaway win for RB

Agree with most of what you are saying, but Singapore was such a missed opportunity for Merc as they never got to show their true pace. Hamilton stuck behind Sainz, then the mistake, and he's stuck behind Vettel the whole race. I still think that if Ham had nailed the lap in quali and been on pole he would have won it.
Kind of the same thing with Suzuka to be honest, in free practice they were by far the fastest car on inters in the wet.

[chrisc90]

Might be a slight bit off topic for the race thread…

But has there been any word on the protest from Alpine and the cost cap talks?

[langedweil]

Might be a slight bit off topic for the race thread…

But has there been any word on the protest from Alpine and the cost cap talks?

That was scheduled for today at 18:00 as far as I recall ?

[chrisc90]

Might be a slight bit off topic for the race thread…

But has there been any word on the protest from Alpine and the cost cap talks?

That was scheduled for today at 18:00 as far as I recall ?

I presume that is Mexican time? Instead of any other time zone?

[langedweil]

Might be a slight bit off topic for the race thread…

But has there been any word on the protest from Alpine and the cost cap talks?

That was scheduled for today at 18:00 as far as I recall ?

I presume that is Mexican time? Instead of any other time zone?

I reckon ...

[chrisc90]

Yeah it is. Just confirmed on the FIA papers.

Cost cap news is awfully quiet