2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[ValeVida46]

Let the body language specialists chime in now.

He blinked 12 times in the interview so the upgrade is now a verifiable failure

But at least the team were grounded enough to not expect miracles of 0.5+ second upgrade package expectations behooved upon them by some on here. Just takes a couple of seconds of google ability to figure that one...

https://www.planetsport.com/motorsport/ ... s-upgrades

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/207010/w ... rades.html

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/toto-wolff-wa ... kDHD4SUv5K

https://the-race.com/formula-1/we-cant- ... n-rematch/

[Hammerfist]

Still early but the worrying thing for me is that the car still behaves like the first spec and like last year also. It still needs substantial wing level to be fast around corners, the rear is still a problem and one lap pace is still a problem. It doesn't look like they have found any additional downforce from the changes to the floor and the sidepod change and the new front suspension is doing what exactly? Just calling it as it is after FP2. Let's see how things look after qualifying and race.

[ValeVida46]

Shovlin explains the situation pretty succinctly.

We're open minded what we're going to get, we just want to understand what are the gaps, where are we quick, where we slow, what do we need to work on, as we are expecting to do more work. So really just getting a clear direction.

Cue the firing squad.

[ValeVida46]

Croft with a good point re the change in concept.
Doing so in an era of budget caps and wind tunnel restrictions is a compounding problem. Aston Martin found this out when they had their massive upgrade last year. Although Aston had that concept running simultaneously with the first car, so they were better prepared and had Fallows who had the advantage of seeing the RB18 design direction.
They did still wobble before they could get it all working.

Add to the issues that the cockpit is positioned forwards and the compromise on the floor and packaging, you can see why they made the decision to change pretty late, as they threw alot of limited resources into the zeropod idea.
Now I guess this is just going to be a running laboratory exercise until year end and whatever is gleaned can be put to good use in the W15.

[diffuser]

Flow Vis ?

[chrisc90]

Fairly open from Shovlin there really. Still sounds like there is a lot of work to do on and to the car in future and a lot more further understanding of how it reacts, and definitely getting a lot of data/understanding for next years car.

Rather interesting RE the geometry and camber for different corners where it would be different for right or left handers and high/low speed, I wonder how many other teams do similar.

At present I think the upgrades are still pretty much where they were at present, or at least in line with the others around them with their upgrades. Come tomorrow we will get a understanding of the pace of the car on Quali day and how it plays out in race pace.

I dont think it will be all doom and gloom and they will have brought some pace to the track to work on.

[AR3-GP]

https://racer.com/2023/06/02/hamilton-f ... ind-speed/

Russell:

“It’s only Friday so we’ve not learned a huge amount, but we will dig into the data tonight. We know that we are not Friday specialists and we often take a step forward on Saturday and Sunday, which is the right way round for it to be. But we are where we are. A lot of people are bringing updates to their cars and we weren’t expecting to be setting the world on fire. We just need to learn what we can from the info we have and try to move forward tomorrow.”

Both drivers are a second adrift of Max's average long run pace, which is what it was in Miami race. So far, it doesn't look like the big upgrades have changed anything against a mildly updated RB19.

I was curious to discover if the changes have made any significant progress towards Hamilton's handling concerns and Toto's comment about the "nasty rear".

It was amusing to hear Hamilton say:

"The car feels like the car"

when asked how the car felt after FP2...It's inconclusive but tomorrow is another day for learning.

Hamilton also mentioned in that interview

“It’s impressive to see the improvements that everyone seems to have made all around us. You look at (Esteban) Ocon — the Alpines are doing great, you saw the Aston Martin was second just right behind the Red Bull which is really, really impressive. So it’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure.”

So it could be a case of everyone improving at a similar rate to Mercedes.

https://racer.com/2023/06/02/hamilton-f ... ind-speed/

[Hoffman900]

Fairly open from Shovlin there really. Still sounds like there is a lot of work to do on and to the car in future and a lot more further understanding of how it reacts, and definitely getting a lot of data/understanding for next years car.

Rather interesting RE the geometry and camber for different corners where it would be different for right or left handers and high/low speed, I wonder how many other teams do similar.

At present I think the upgrades are still pretty much where they were at present, or at least in line with the others around them with their upgrades. Come tomorrow we will get a understanding of the pace of the car on Quali day and how it plays out in race pace.

I dont think it will be all doom and gloom and they will have brought some pace to the track to work on.

All teams run asymmetrical set ups everywhere. We have on karts, in Formula Fords, in vintage road racing, in Spec Miata, and pro GT stuff. I really can’t think we’re we’ve ever run a symmetrical set up on anything.

For example most tracks in the US are clockwise and feature way more right hand corners, and as such, usually, prioritizing right hand corners results in a faster overall lap time. You do lose out some in left hand corners, but the net result is a much faster lap time overall and better tire life.

If you look at your tire temps, especially if you can read them real time, you’ll see different tire temps and subsequently tire temp distribution from the left side vs right, sometimes the left front can be 20* C different than the right front.

[Juzh]

Hamilton did 2 laps on softs, second one was in lower power mode and tyres were degraded by then, so not optimal, still he managed to gain around 2 tenths on himself by tidying up T10 and T12 (still the rear was lose here) and T14. I'd say with a decent final sector on his first lap he'd be in the Ocon range and ahead of Russell definitely. So maybe medium wing is preferred?

Look at how much power difference there is between strat 2 (1:14.549) and strat 3 (1:15.124). Very crude estimate at around 6-7 tenths lost on straights on second lap:

[Big Tea]

Fairly open from Shovlin there really. Still sounds like there is a lot of work to do on and to the car in future and a lot more further understanding of how it reacts, and definitely getting a lot of data/understanding for next years car.

Rather interesting RE the geometry and camber for different corners where it would be different for right or left handers and high/low speed, I wonder how many other teams do similar.

At present I think the upgrades are still pretty much where they were at present, or at least in line with the others around them with their upgrades. Come tomorrow we will get a understanding of the pace of the car on Quali day and how it plays out in race pace.

I dont think it will be all doom and gloom and they will have brought some pace to the track to work on.

No knowledge is wasted. It may not be used on this car, but it is in the bank for future use if needed.
I did not fail, just found another way it did not work etc..

( just a shame they may run out of money cap first though)

[Hammerfist]

Hamilton did 2 laps on softs, second one was in lower power mode and tyres were degraded by then, so not optimal, still he managed to gain around 2 tenths on himself by tidying up T10 and T12 (still the rear was lose here) and T14. I'd say with a decent final sector on his first lap he'd be in the Ocon range and ahead of Russell definitely. So maybe medium wing is preferred?

Look at how much power difference there is between strat 2 (1:14.549) and strat 3 (1:15.124). Very crude estimate at around 6-7 tenths lost on straights on second lap:
https://i.imgur.com/ToUej8K.png

They are so far off in S3 with the medium df wing I don't think they will use it. You also have to take account tire wear on this high degradation circuit, so I expect to see the heavier wing for qualifying and race. Should Hamilton decide to split the setups and run the lighter wing then he'll only have himself to blame if it doesn't work out for him. That car needs all the downforce at the rear it can get. That should be obvious by now and I don't even know why they would be playing around with it.

[dans79]

That should be obvious by now and I don't even know why they would be playing around with it.

The ran different rear wings, and exhaust exit packages, and who knows what else. In FP1 lewis did several constant/fixed speed runs for data gathering.

This is the first real track that they can get representative data about the new package, and they will spend as much time on that as they think they can get away with!

[Puffpirat]

Lewis back to the barn door with small cannon exit.

[AR3-GP]

Lewis back to the barn door with small cannon exit.

and a decent laptime out of it too.

[Hammerfist]

Lewis back to the barn door with small cannon exit.

Duh..