2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[JordanMugen]

No. Just no.

The engine was the best on balance, power drievability reliability but horsepower wise Ferrari and Honda has challenged them. 2015 to 2019 the Ferrari engine was probably stronger. In 2020 to 2022 the Honda was very close.

Withholding customer Mercedes power units for Red Bull Racing from 2016 onwards likely helped the relative competitiveness of Mercedes GP against Red Bull Racing a lot in my opinion.

The ex-Lotus supply of Mercedes HPP units was allocated to Manor, who then went bankrupt, instead of Red Bull: a financially sound team looking to replace their Renault supply. Mercedes HPP developments benefiting Red Bull Racing and Mercedes GP equally would likely have been better for the sport and produced better action and battles over multiple championships from 2016 onwards.

Interestingly, Red Bull Racing is apparently negotiating towards a supply of Ford RBPT units for McLaren Racing from 2026. This would seem to be a sound sporting gesture, perhaps lacking from Mercedes for the 2016 season on.

[stonehenge]

What are you guys hoping for? 4th 5th spot?
I'm expecting around 5-8th

Honestly I'm not looking at the position but just time to the red bulls. If they end up within half a second to Verstappen I would be pretty happy considering the tone yesterday.

[De Jokke]

No. Just no.

The engine was the best on balance, power drievability reliability but horsepower wise Ferrari and Honda has challenged them. 2015 to 2019 the Ferrari engine was probably stronger. In 2020 to 2022 the Honda was very close.

Withholding customer Mercedes power units for Red Bull Racing from 2016 onwards likely helped the relative competitiveness of Mercedes GP against Red Bull Racing a lot in my opinion.

The ex-Lotus supply of Mercedes HPP units was allocated to Manor, who then went bankrupt, instead of Red Bull: a financially sound team looking to replace their Renault supply. Mercedes HPP developments benefiting Red Bull Racing and Mercedes GP equally would likely have been better for the sport and produced better action and battles over multiple championships from 2016 onwards.

Interestingly, the sporting Red Bull Racing team is negotiating towards a supply of Ford RBPT units for McLaren Racing from 2026.

[pursue_one's]

[Vanja #66]

Shame, I really wanted them to make it work with slim sides

[Sofa King]

Well, Merc have improved by 0.05 seconds vs. their qualifying deficit last year. Let’s see if they have better relative performance during the race again this year

[Shrieker]

Not as bad as expected, but still pretty

[harty71]

Russell must have definitely been holding back all weekend, picking up where he left off last season, this car is no better than in 2022.

[Spoutnik]

They are as fast as Alpine at the end of last season. Not good enough

[mendis]

So it starts off, 1-0 for Russell over Hamilton.

[mkay]

Merc was spot on. Before the weekend they said they were about 6 tenths off Red Bull, and that's exactly where they are after Q3.

[JordanMugen]

What does that mean?

Did they not test a downwashing and/or wide sidepod concept in CFD during W14 conceptual design to see if it was better?

For the most part the W13 was pretty fast, especially on smooth, high downforce circuits. It did win a race and a pole after all, and perhaps the W14 (as is, with the so-called "half pods") will build on that?

[mkay]

What does that mean?

Did they not test a downwashing and/or wide sidepod concept in CFD during W14 conceptual design to see if it was better?

For the most part the W13 was pretty fast, especially on smooth, high downforce circuits. It did win a race and a pole after all, and perhaps the W14 (as is, with the so-called "half pods") will build on that?

My read of this is that their rumoured sidepod upgrade coming in a few months will do away with the "zeropod" concept, probably adopting a variant of the RB/AM downwashing.

[rifrafs2kees]

So it starts off, 1-0 for Russell over Hamilton.

Curious about the race pace of the different approaches...high downforce with high associated non-drs drag penalty vs lower downforce, lower non-drs penalty but potentially high deg.

[Vanja #66]

Surprising to see Mercedes so far back, I really expected them to do better. Floor isn't doing well enough, even if the car is low enough and has no bouncing. If they truly do away completely with slim sides, will be interesting to see how much they gain a few races later, it always takes some time to get to know the new car spec.