2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Ben31]

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/toto-w ... 41161.html

Toto Wolff: “We want to win. At this stage last year, we knew we were in trouble because the car was bouncing around and we were not able to drive it correctly.
But today, it is very different. The car seems to be balanced in the right way.”

[cplchanb]

granted it's early but it's not looking good. really hoping this isn't a repeat of the 2022 season

lets not get too pessimistic after day 1....Ham showed consistent lap times on their race sims and they have a good starting point so they can develop and catch up.
last year they spent 1/2 a season at least just trying to make the car drivable, let alone race winning.

[pursue_one's]

[214270]

Reading that W14 was base config - no setup changes. Purely, a day to comp against W13

Good opening day IMO.

[De Jokke]

Merc news:

https://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view ... e_W14_car/

and

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/182632/m ... stand.html

So we ARE behind, the question is by how much. And can they reel the leaders in, and if so, how quickly?

Come on MERC , let's make 2023 exciting!

[101FlyingDutchman]

Merc news:

https://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view ... e_W14_car/

and

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/182632/m ... stand.html

So we ARE behind, the question is by how much. And can they reel the leaders in, and if so, how quickly?

Come on MERC , let's make 2023 exciting!

Agreed if not Merc then root for Karma Nando

[De Jokke]

To break this down:

GOOD:
"we've already identified several key areas where we can find some performance" : is bad but can also be a good thing (it's how you look at it )
"The car has run faultlessly from start to finish and that has allowed us to complete an ambitious programme for day one,"

NOT GOOD:
"we've already identified several key areas where we can find some performance. We'll work on the assumption that we're playing catch up and need to pull out all the stops to find performance ahead of the first race here in one week's time."
"we can focus on maximizing the potential of the car in the coming days."

It supports the theory (rumours) that they were coming out of the winter in catching up mode and knew they were going to be behind for the first couple of races atleast. I just hope they can catch the leaders, but if any team can: it's MERC

[f1jcw]

To break this down:

GOOD:
"we've already identified several key areas where we can find some performance" : is bad but can also be a good thing (it's how you look at it )
"The car has run faultlessly from start to finish and that has allowed us to complete an ambitious programme for day one,"

NOT GOOD:
"we've already identified several key areas where we can find some performance. We'll work on the assumption that we're playing catch up and need to pull out all the stops to find performance ahead of the first race here in one week's time."
"we can focus on maximizing the potential of the car in the coming days."

None of that is bad.
It is good they can identify areas they find some performance

[De Jokke]

Perhaps the key areas (or some of them) are for the team a confirmation that they are spot on (correlation is working) in which areas they expected the current test car to be weak (compared to what's being developed now as we speak in their wind tunnel)

[chrisc90]

Surely they must have some rough idea where they stand compared to the others.

I mean they were super close with Ferrari most of 2nd half last season, so they are the main focus on whether they are 2nd or 3rd, McLaren behind were well away in terms of pace so either the cars behind have caught up, or merc have dropped performance. But given the new revolutions of some of the cars then it could be a little shady to know where they are in relation.

[214270]

Wolff: “We have a very solid base now to work from and try to optimise the car, which we haven’t done yet. It’s really just padding out - are there any areas that could be real performance hinderance like last year with the bouncing.”

[f1jcw]

Wolff: “We have a very solid base now to work from and try to optimise the car, which we haven’t done yet. It’s really just padding out - are there any areas that could be real performance hinderance like last year with the bouncing.”

With anything, mechanics, software programming, you set a base line.
Once you are satisfied that is working you then build on it.

[214270]

Wolff: “We have a very solid base now to work from and try to optimise the car, which we haven’t done yet. It’s really just padding out - are there any areas that could be real performance hinderance like last year with the bouncing.”

With anything, mechanics, software programming, you set a base line.
Once you are satisfied that is working you then build on it.

Yup, Wolff said as much: “We are gathering a lot of data because that was important to correlate obviously after last year.”

[ringo]

Good news. They won a race last year with a bad car. So bodes well that the base is stable.
They may go really well come the first race. One strength with the w13 was tyre deg, So i can imagine this car competing at the front even if short run pace is 3rd best, but closer.

[PlatinumZealot]

This ugly cockroach of a car is going to come good. I feel it!