2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[DGP123]

Superb drive from Hamilton today. Showed his class. Tough on Russell, but that’s motorsport. Red flag/SC call hurt him, but last year he benefitted from them on numerous occasions, so maybe the tables are turning.

All in all, a positive weekend for the team, but a million miles still off RB. Upgrades to come at Baku/Imola

Hamilton 38
Russell 18

[organic]

2 drive related dnfs in 3 races. Not ideal

Russell and Hamilton were excellent today. Particularly the latter with his move on max

It seems track with low degradation and smooth favour the car at the moment relative to amr/RB

[De Jokke]

Now merc can upgrade the engine at least

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[DGP123]

…Hamilton’s move was superb. It’s the kind of aggressive driving I’ve been wanting to see more from Hamilton.

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[chrisc90]

I dont see any problem with the move to be fair. Hard racing, pushing him to the limits of the track. No contact.

Mod edit - off topic comment removed

If I was in the shoes of fans today, id be over the moon at P2

[AR3-GP]

Russell got hosed six ways to Sunday. From the first competition red flag, to the PU failure. That's a big hit in the points standings to all of his closest rivals (Alonso, Hamilton, Stroll)

[ringo]

I suspect the cars a run much lower at tracks woth few bumps or elevation changes.
The car lookes respectable and in some ways so did W13 here last year.
Russel looked good before the dnf. But something just tells me he likes riding the car lower than Lewis and he can tolerate the bumps a little better. If it were the bumps that xause his engine failure.. not sure. But very unusual from Merc.
It did indeed look like a turbo failure.

[littlebigcat]

Russell didn't like the pressure from Hamilton did he?

[mendis]

Russell didn't like the pressure from Hamilton did he?

Russell was asked to manage his pace and he didn't like it as it wasn't applicable to Hamilton who was attacking him. Then they decided to shoot in the foot.

[Hammerfist]

Before the race there were some people claiming that Russell was so focused on Lewis that he would not attack Max, Well he did attack Max in the first corner just like I thought he would if he had a better start. Don't understand why people think he wouldn't to be honest. Weird. Shame things didn't work out for him in the end though.
Lewis keeping Alonso at bay wasn't a sign that the Merc is faster than the Aston. I thought had positiions been reversed the Aston would have put a gap on the Merc. They are still faster than us, but we have closed the gap to them, while Redbull remains in another league.
It's a shame Leclerc got taken out that early as he is the real reference point for Ferrari. Hamilton did gap Sainz, but that's not representative of the cars pace imo.

[ringo]

Russell played himself with the VSC call, especially if he had any input on the call.

For once, Russell's VSC / SC good karma vanished.

Yep he likes to take gambles. But the more he runs at the front, the more he will realize the gambles can bite hard.
He did seem to be crying. He did some good moves to move up to 5th, but it just was not his day today.
Expect him to gamble even more to claw back the gap to Lewis. This intra team battle will get tasty. I can see Russel blowing his fuse quite soon if things continue to not go his way.
Even though his race was cut short, just looking at how he drives, I think he is really one of the best on the grid.
I wont lie, he is sharper than Lewis in terms of reactions and reflexes. He only lacks experience and craft.

By the way Totto and Vasseur seem to be deep in discussion. Were they planning a Hamilton and Leclerc swap?

[ringo]

Before the race there were some people claiming that Russell was so focused on Lewis that he would not attack Max, Well he did attack Max in the first corner just like I thought he would if he had a better start. Don't understand why people think he wouldn't to be honest. Weird. Shame things didn't work out for him in the end though.
Lewis keeping Alonso at bay wasn't a sign that the Merc is faster than the Aston. I thought had positiions been reversed the Aston would have put a gap on the Merc. They are still faster than us, but we have closed the gap to them, while Redbull remains in another league.
It's a shame Leclerc got taken out that early as he is the real reference point for Ferrari. Hamilton did gap Sainz, but that's not representative of the cars pace imo.

I think Alonso not being able to pass was a matter of his endurance, and possibly not wanting to damage the tyres in a fight. Alonso did have the faster car, but it was not that much faster, and Lewis could respond blow for blow with lap times.
I think we are faster than ferrari. For the past 2 races, they have been mediocre. I do not think they fully understand their problems as yet.

[Hammerfist]

Before the race there were some people claiming that Russell was so focused on Lewis that he would not attack Max, Well he did attack Max in the first corner just like I thought he would if he had a better start. Don't understand why people think he wouldn't to be honest. Weird. Shame things didn't work out for him in the end though.
Lewis keeping Alonso at bay wasn't a sign that the Merc is faster than the Aston. I thought had positiions been reversed the Aston would have put a gap on the Merc. They are still faster than us, but we have closed the gap to them, while Redbull remains in another league.
It's a shame Leclerc got taken out that early as he is the real reference point for Ferrari. Hamilton did gap Sainz, but that's not representative of the cars pace imo.

I think Alonso not being able to pass was a matter of his endurance, and possibly not wanting to damage the tyres in a fight. Alonso did have the faster car, but it was not that much faster, and Lewis could respond blow for blow with lap times.
I think we are faster than ferrari. For the past 2 races, they have been mediocre. I do not think they fully understand their problems as yet.

I don't think it had anything to do with endurance, it's just the dirty air phenomenon which the powers that be are refusing to admit is back in full force. As soon as you get close to 1 sec, you start to feel it. Alonso said he just couldn't get any closer than that. We saw the same thing in SA. When cars are closely matched, it's impossible to get near, especially the top cars.

I tend to agree with Ferrari, but we have not seen Leclerc in clean air for a while now. Like I said, he is the reference point. He is almost always faster than Sainz.

[AR3-GP]

Before the race there were some people claiming that Russell was so focused on Lewis that he would not attack Max, Well he did attack Max in the first corner just like I thought he would if he had a better start. Don't understand why people think he wouldn't to be honest. Weird. Shame things didn't work out for him in the end though.
Lewis keeping Alonso at bay wasn't a sign that the Merc is faster than the Aston. I thought had positiions been reversed the Aston would have put a gap on the Merc. They are still faster than us, but we have closed the gap to them, while Redbull remains in another league.
It's a shame Leclerc got taken out that early as he is the real reference point for Ferrari. Hamilton did gap Sainz, but that's not representative of the cars pace imo.

I think Alonso not being able to pass was a matter of his endurance, and possibly not wanting to damage the tyres in a fight. Alonso did have the faster car, but it was not that much faster, and Lewis could respond blow for blow with lap times.
I think we are faster than ferrari. For the past 2 races, they have been mediocre. I do not think they fully understand their problems as yet.

Sainz all but caught Alonso, who wasn't much behind Hamilton. Note Sainz is the slower Ferrari driver.

[Big Tea]

Wow first spectacular merc engine explosion since Malaysia 2016...ham looked in solid control over Alonso to but they are clearly at least half a second behind rb

Looked like exhaust caught fire, maybe pu itself is fine.

It lost a significant amount of power and was smoking before igniting.
No sound of metal eating itself though...

Looked to me like a holed piston. Engine still free, power loss and a pulsed exhaust plume.