2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[tuj]

What (besides a given wing setup) is causing the Merc so much drag? They have seemed slower on straights all year by a good margin to RBR. I gather that the RBR concept must have much less drag and Honda/Exxon probably did a bit better w/ the fuel changes, so maybe they are up 10-20hp on Merc right now but the straight-lines are much more than that. HAM was losing 0.5-0.6 on the straights today and that's been a theme all year.

I'm trying to understand what exactly was flawed as the concept (e.g. side pods) seems to emphasize low drag, yet they are forced to run a lot of wing.

- How was 'porpoising' mitigated without rising ride height? I always felt a mechanical solution e.g the J-damper/inerter made sense and I don't believe that would be illegal. Was this eliminated through changing the floor design itself to not cause oscillations, or the suspension to control them?

- What needs to change for the current concept to work next year? I'm assuming the monocoque is a key limitation

- It has been said that the optimum car design given the calendar is to create as much -L as possible at ~120mph, then emphasize -L/D (efficiency) above that. One way was said to be the 'layback' rear wing, or any number of other drag reduction systems used over the years. How is RBR so much faster on the straights?

[djones]

Total guess, but the ground effect aero this year is about downforce with little drag.

Mercedes got that fundamental concept wrong and could not create enough low drag downforce from the floor. So we have seen many times they resort to using traditional wings to get the downforce which has the higher drag in return.

[AR3-GP]

Mercedes really didn't look like they could trouble Ferrari over the distance today. I thought the high downforce was supposed to be better for the race?

[caddy]

Congratulations to George Russell for a job well done in first year, a difficult year, at Mercedes.

[harty71]

Amazing first season from Russell, a pole and a victory in the 3rd best car, what more could you ask for, he will be fighting for the title next season if they have a challenger.

[wogx]

Lewis Hamilton with the lowest position in the drivers' standings in the history of his F1 starts.

[chrisc90]

Lewis Hamilton with the lowest position in the drivers' standings in the history of his F1 starts.

https://www.wykop.pl/cdn/c3201142/comme ... iSYBJj.jpg

Also losing his run of always finishing at least 1st once in a season in his F1 career

[CaribouBread]

Good first year with the team for Russel, unfortunate for Lewis to lose his yearly race win/pole stat but I hope this will make him hungrier for next year provided the car is more competitive than the W13. (it most likely will be!)

[Tiny73]

Lewis Hamilton with the lowest position in the drivers' standings in the history of his F1 starts.

https://www.wykop.pl/cdn/c3201142/comme ... iSYBJj.jpg

Also losing his run of always finishing at least 1st once in a season in his F1 career

At least you’re happy Chris

[Big Tea]

Lewis Hamilton with the lowest position in the drivers' standings in the history of his F1 starts.

https://www.wykop.pl/cdn/c3201142/comme ... iSYBJj.jpg

Also losing his run of always finishing at least 1st once in a season in his F1 career

Shows how bad the car was

[chrisc90]

Lewis Hamilton with the lowest position in the drivers' standings in the history of his F1 starts.

https://www.wykop.pl/cdn/c3201142/comme ... iSYBJj.jpg

Also losing his run of always finishing at least 1st once in a season in his F1 career

Shows how bad the car was

Yeah, there were at times where the car showed a bit of potential and showed great race pace. Mexico and Brazil it gave people a glimse of what it could be like.

Going forward I reckon there will be a LOT of work going on over the winter for Mercedes. Come pre-season testing its going to be huge to see what direction they opt for with the W14, but hopefully if they change their sidepod design, they arent 10months behind everyone else

[djones]

George has done good but has had a lot of fortune this year. Conversely, Lewis has done average at best and had a lot of bad luck. He also allegedly sacrificed a lot of the season being the guinea pig for setups.

Geroge has the most points, but so has Ocon versus Alonso and we all know that has zero reflection on skill, etc.

Next year Geroge won't stand a chance in my opinion. The stars won't align like this again for him, nor will they un-align like this again for Lewis. I feel 2022 was a blip for the team, lewis, and Geroge... but in different ways.

[Henri]

Are you guys confident in nexts years car will it solve the drag issue they have ?

[f1jcw]

I think the gap was exaggerated by the requirement to run the big wing (point of Toto quote), and Hamilton’s mistake in T14.

I wonder why they always have to run a big wing

[Sevach]

Total guess, but the ground effect aero this year is about downforce with little drag.

Mercedes got that fundamental concept wrong and could not create enough low drag downforce from the floor. So we have seen many times they resort to using traditional wings to get the downforce which has the higher drag in return.

I agree with this view, Red Bull went for clean efficiency and won everything, Ferrari improved it's competitiveness on the average track when they sacrificed a bit of downforce for lower drag.

Mercedes performed it's best on rarefied air, where the math changes.