2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[mendis]

Great job by George to be finishing ahead of both Ferraris and especially keeping his team mate behind that was on faster tyres!

I think Russel is more talented than Max. Have always maintained that. I am not a big fan like Harty and Mendis are. But having seen how Russel raced max last year in spain. And some other hilights of his.. He is very good.

Not so long ago you said Latifi was better than George and that George hasn't done anything to earn a place at Mercedes.

This is exactly why you never wanted George alongside Lewis.

[DGP123]

Hamilton 20 pts
Russell 18 pts

[mendis]

Hamilton 20 pts
Russell 18 pts

George 1, Lewis 0 on head to head season battle.

[ValeVida46]

Merc with better than expected pace.

Faster than Ferrari, and a couple tenths off the Aston. I wonder if Ferrari need to change their sidepods...

[mendis]

Merc with better than expected pace.

Faster than Ferrari, and a couple tenths off the Aston. I wonder if Ferrari need to change their sidepods...

Eventually, everybody will copy RB.

[harty71]

The car isn't nowhere near as bad as is made out, especially come race day.

[ringo]

Merc with better than expected pace.

Faster than Ferrari, and a couple tenths off the Aston. I wonder if Ferrari need to change their sidepods...

Good one!

Looks like their best "floor downforce" doesnt amount to much.
Also their sidepods.

This formula is very tricky. I feel ferrari just did not get the setup right.

Even looking at hulkenberg's haas in qualifying it seems there is a lot of mystery with tyre temperature and mechanical setup.

It bodes well for mecedes if they found their problem in the the windtunnel. They will just need qualifying pace and good tyre deg with the upgrades to at least fight with aston martin.

[AR3-GP]

Hamilton 20 pts
Russell 18 pts

Hamilton 20
Russell 21

[ringo]

Lucky!

[mkay]

Poor from Bono - he should have told HAM to keep pushing in the event ALO has a 10s penalty.

HAM finished 10.4s away from ALO. 0.4s cost him P4.

[harty71]

Poor from Bono - he should have told HAM to keep pushing in the event ALO has a 10s penalty.

HAM finished 10.4s away from ALO. 0.4s cost him P4.

They were expecting 5 secs.

[ValeVida46]

Merc with better than expected pace.

Faster than Ferrari, and a couple tenths off the Aston. I wonder if Ferrari need to change their sidepods...

Good one!

Looks like their best "floor downforce" doesnt amount to much.
Also their sidepods.

This formula is very tricky. I feel ferrari just did not get the setup right.

Even looking at hulkenberg's haas in qualifying it seems there is a lot of mystery with tyre temperature and mechanical setup.

It bodes well for mecedes if they found their problem in the the windtunnel. They will just need qualifying pace and good tyre deg with the upgrades to at least fight with aston martin.

Yup, I think operating windows and getting the floor performance is key...as well as the interaction of overbody aero. It's still not great for Merc, and they did expect a better weekend as at Jeddah the tyre deg is negligible.
I think Lewis could've had an ideal strategy if it wasn't for the safety car too.
Tad more optimistic, but it's safe to say this season is already finished as a competitive sporting spectacle for anyone bar Red Bull, unfortunately.

[Mchamilton]

Poor from Bono - he should have told HAM to keep pushing in the event ALO has a 10s penalty.

HAM finished 10.4s away from ALO. 0.4s cost him P4.

They were expecting 5 secs.

Then they're stupider than their car looks because it's always 10s when the initial penalty is incorrectly served.. was only the last race when it last occured

[mkay]

Poor from Bono - he should have told HAM to keep pushing in the event ALO has a 10s penalty.

HAM finished 10.4s away from ALO. 0.4s cost him P4.

They were expecting 5 secs.

That's even worse considering Ocon (I believe) received 10 seconds at the last GP for not having served his 5-sec penalty properly.

[zibby43]

I think if they are running a concept that is like Ferrari/RB/AMR, then you know that it works already.

Didn’t they say last year that they tested rivals’ designs and that they didn’t think they were worth pursuing further?

What’s changed?

Makes me wonder how true those past statements were, because what they’re saying now makes sense given the AM is flying with so many Merc components.

I'm also skeptical of claims of how well they investigated non-W13 ideas. Engineers don't work in vacuum. They already strongly believed in their original ideas. They're human. It will have been hard for them to look at other ideas without some bias against them simply because it was not their own idea.

I agree with everything you set out above.