2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[214270]

Might not’ve gained, but RUS certainly didn’t lose on that opening lap.

FIA may need to tighten up on that runoff a la Sochi for nxt time

[Just_a_fan]

Max and Lewis tried fastest laps on the same lap and the difference was 1.3 seconds with similarly aged tyres! Mercedes with all the upgrades.

You with all of the wrong data...

https://i.postimg.cc/85sC8sz3/spain-1.png

https://i.postimg.cc/q717Z24y/spain-2.png

Er, Hamilton's fastest lap was 0.3s slower than Max's fastest lap. It doesn't matter what time they did on a particular individual lap.

[dans79]

Er, Hamilton's fastest lap was 0.3s slower than Max's fastest lap. It doesn't matter what time they did on a particular individual lap.

Yep, and the official timing documentations shows it.
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... is_v01.pdf
Max - Lap 61 - 1:16.330
Lewis - Lap 62 - 1:16.676

[AR3-GP]

What's the fascination with the fast laps? Is anyone here thinking that Merc is only 3 tenths behind RB?

[214270]

16.3 for max and a 16.6 for Lewis is right. 3tenths. Can’t dispute that.

I guess... the one thing to factor in is that Hamilton DID get a tow / DRS from Albon on his fastest lap. So that 3 tenths gap may have been flattered a little.

Yup, 3 tenths is misleading.

[Sofa King]

What’s the consensus on the race pace improvement to the field after the Monaco upgrades? I think Merc is still 0.4-0.5 seconds/lap behind Red Bull and probably picked up about the same compared to the races before Monaco

[zibby43]

I think it was a good showing from Hamilton. The less said about Russell, the better... It's curious that Alpine and Mclaren are so close now on Saturdays. Previously you would never imagine Merc being outqualified by Alpine two race weekends in a row.

I don’t think we really have to worry about the Alpines anymore.

[organic]

I think it was a good showing from Hamilton. The less said about Russell, the better... It's curious that Alpine and Mclaren are so close now on Saturdays. Previously you would never imagine Merc being outqualified by Alpine two race weekends in a row.

I don’t think we really have to worry about the Alpines anymore.

I think worth mentioning none of the other teams got the tyres working properly on Sunday. RB and Mercedes got the tyres working as they had done in fp2, but others fell away.

I would hesitate to draw broad sweeping conclusions from one session

[chrisc90]

I think it was a good showing from Hamilton. The less said about Russell, the better... It's curious that Alpine and Mclaren are so close now on Saturdays. Previously you would never imagine Merc being outqualified by Alpine two race weekends in a row.

I don’t think we really have to worry about the Alpines anymore.

The fact they have been up there on Saturdays 2 weekends in a row shouldn't be knocked back just yet. This weekend you had Perez and Charles out of position and Alonso struggling with pace all weekend. Ferrari doing stupid pit calls as usual.

Its a good step forward for Mercedes, no doubting that. Hopefully people wont get too caught up in 1 'proper race' with the new updates and brought back down to earth come following races (W13 did well in Barcelona last year too). Give it 3 or 4 more races and get a better understanding then.

Its a positive start, fingers crossed they can work on it and keep getting the car in a good setup window for quali/race pace going forwards.

[dans79]

I would hesitate to draw broad sweeping conclusions from one session

Having a wide enough set-up window to handle varying conditions easily is an important trait for the car to have though! Specially when we head to tracks were the weather/temps can be all over the place from one day to the next!

The big question mark for me is was the pace seen today because they could run the car lower on a decently smooth track, or was it a genuine all around improvement!

[Just_a_fan]

What's the fascination with the fast laps? Is anyone here thinking that Merc is only 3 tenths behind RB?

It was a response to mendis saying that the Merc's fastest lap was 1.3 slower than the eventual fastest lap by Max.

That's it, nothing more.

[F1Krof]

I would hesitate to draw broad sweeping conclusions from one session

Having a wide enough set-up window to handle varying conditions easily is an important trait for the car to have though! Specially when we head to tracks were the weather/temps can be all over the place from one day to the next!

The big question mark for me is was the pace seen today because they could run the car lower on a decently smooth track, or was it a genuine all around improvement!

I agree. Montreal being particularly bumpy will be a good test. If they fair well there with corners that require good traction, then it will be good.

Also a word of caution, after they removed the chicane at S3, it became a track of mostly medium and high speed corners that make the car front limited. They faired well in Austrailia with W-14A, and last year as well they have been good in Catalunya.

Personally, I want to keep the expectations low as 1 track is not representative of the whole picture.

[mkay]

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has just been resurfaced over the winter. So a question marks re: bumps.

That said, it's a track where you need to ride kerbs aggressively, so this will be a good test for the new front suspension.

[taperoo2k]

I think it was a good showing from Hamilton. The less said about Russell, the better... It's curious that Alpine and Mclaren are so close now on Saturdays. Previously you would never imagine Merc being outqualified by Alpine two race weekends in a row.

I don’t think we really have to worry about the Alpines anymore.

I think worth mentioning none of the other teams got the tyres working properly on Sunday. RB and Mercedes got the tyres working as they had done in fp2, but others fell away.

I would hesitate to draw broad sweeping conclusions from one session

It looks like they might have found a good development path at least. I'd say it's so far so good with
this upgrade. We'll have to see if Mercedes getting tyres into the right operating window continues over
the course of the next few races.

[Juzh]

Looking at hamilton's personal best lap, he gained around 0,4s-0,5s with DRS and slipstream compared to his previous best and all subsequent laps.
He tried again on last lap despite bono telling him it's probably not worth it. he then aborted after T1-T2, probably after seeing he's already down half a second.