2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[ringo]

Merc did well at Zaandvort too from memory last year. I agree though, it was the Brazil win that led the team up the wrong path with the fake belief the concept 'worked'. Coupled with a decent performance in Mexico aswell I think.
I dont think the W14 is 'that' bad this year. It certainly has its moments, but its still a very competitive race car. If you take Max out of the equation then probably comfortably leading the WCC this year given the standards Perez has had. Its with the McLaren upgrade its going to be a interesting remainder of the season.

I think with a few well calculated tweaks, their car will be on the fight for wins again. The RB/Max advantage isnt going to last forever and others have/will close the gaps in. (the penalty is catching up with RB it seems last few races - but we see what the upgrade does.

It should be interesting to see what George does tomorrow. P18 starting position and a car to make some good progress. Im expecting P10-P7-ish for him tomorrow.

I do not see him getting any points from there.

Hey ringo?

Under normal circumstances i meant!
He was luck with two alpines taking themselves out, 5 second penalty for Zhou, Riciardo mess,
And ferrari leclerc penalty.
Nonethless the drive was good by George and the car showed sweet and sour pace over the race. It came back in the end.
But good job by both drivers.
Clearly a lot of work to do to catch Mclaren.

[chrisc90]

Come on... you cant discredit my prediction on that one. Without the Charles Penalty he would have been P7, so that played no basis. Certainly a good drive from Russell today.

[Rikhart]

The team may start him on the hards, but unless he gets lucky with a safety, it's going to rough getting points. I think with both Mclarens being up front, and the Ferraris and Alpines and Astons have generally good pace and top speed, Russel may find it difficult to get points.

By the way, I notice the calls for Lewis to be dropped have waned for some races now. Russel was the next big thing and Lewis was washed up, and did not deserve his weight in salary; someone kept saying. Since the upgraded W14 he has been putting somewhat of a gulf between himself and George in the races. George is still very good and very quick on a Saturday, but Lewis brings certain experience and fighting mentality that still is important for the team to retain.
Also Max is not comfortable with him. Everyone else he calls his mate and he has a mental advantage over. Only Lewis ruffles Max's feathers. So I hope things stay this close till the end of the season.

The car itself is still unproven. It goes well at this track but may be mediocre in Spa. Ferrari are not sorting themselves out and that's what making things look better than they are. Aston has run out of steam and so has Alpine.
Mclaren does not have much weakness now in the car, and W14 need to get to that point of not having any major weakness before it can challenge.

Just this race that ended minutes ago, hamilton threw away a very achievable 2nd or 3rd position, with that extremely poor first lap.

[Hammerfist]

The team may start him on the hards, but unless he gets lucky with a safety, it's going to rough getting points. I think with both Mclarens being up front, and the Ferraris and Alpines and Astons have generally good pace and top speed, Russel may find it difficult to get points.

By the way, I notice the calls for Lewis to be dropped have waned for some races now. Russel was the next big thing and Lewis was washed up, and did not deserve his weight in salary; someone kept saying. Since the upgraded W14 he has been putting somewhat of a gulf between himself and George in the races. George is still very good and very quick on a Saturday, but Lewis brings certain experience and fighting mentality that still is important for the team to retain.
Also Max is not comfortable with him. Everyone else he calls his mate and he has a mental advantage over. Only Lewis ruffles Max's feathers. So I hope things stay this close till the end of the season.

The car itself is still unproven. It goes well at this track but may be mediocre in Spa. Ferrari are not sorting themselves out and that's what making things look better than they are. Aston has run out of steam and so has Alpine.
Mclaren does not have much weakness now in the car, and W14 need to get to that point of not having any major weakness before it can challenge.

Just this race that ended minutes ago, hamilton threw away a very achievable 2nd or 3rd position, with that extremely poor first lap.

Big Hamilton fan and I agree. 2nd was definitely possible. A shocking first lap, too short a first stint and bad hard tire warmup is why he ended up where he was. Not his best day even though he was fast in the last stint.

[ringo]

The team may start him on the hards, but unless he gets lucky with a safety, it's going to rough getting points. I think with both Mclarens being up front, and the Ferraris and Alpines and Astons have generally good pace and top speed, Russel may find it difficult to get points.

By the way, I notice the calls for Lewis to be dropped have waned for some races now. Russel was the next big thing and Lewis was washed up, and did not deserve his weight in salary; someone kept saying. Since the upgraded W14 he has been putting somewhat of a gulf between himself and George in the races. George is still very good and very quick on a Saturday, but Lewis brings certain experience and fighting mentality that still is important for the team to retain.
Also Max is not comfortable with him. Everyone else he calls his mate and he has a mental advantage over. Only Lewis ruffles Max's feathers. So I hope things stay this close till the end of the season.

The car itself is still unproven. It goes well at this track but may be mediocre in Spa. Ferrari are not sorting themselves out and that's what making things look better than they are. Aston has run out of steam and so has Alpine.
Mclaren does not have much weakness now in the car, and W14 need to get to that point of not having any major weakness before it can challenge.

Just this race that ended minutes ago, hamilton threw away a very achievable 2nd or 3rd position, with that extremely poor first lap.

Lol. He threw away a 2nd? What race were you watching?
The car was dead in the water. Perez had to be on the podium as well as Norris or Piastri.
Hamilton got the maximum out of the car.
He was P4 no matter what. Did you see the time lost to Norris in the pit stops?
No way merc could have been on the podium.
Mclaren would simply manage their pace to beat Lewis if he magically held on to p1 after lap 1.
A lot of what you think is driver controlled simply isnt.
How the car brings in the tyres etc. Has little bearing on how you can drive it.
Mercedes are just slow to warm the tyres and that's where they lose the podium.

[cplchanb]

The team may start him on the hards, but unless he gets lucky with a safety, it's going to rough getting points. I think with both Mclarens being up front, and the Ferraris and Alpines and Astons have generally good pace and top speed, Russel may find it difficult to get points.

By the way, I notice the calls for Lewis to be dropped have waned for some races now. Russel was the next big thing and Lewis was washed up, and did not deserve his weight in salary; someone kept saying. Since the upgraded W14 he has been putting somewhat of a gulf between himself and George in the races. George is still very good and very quick on a Saturday, but Lewis brings certain experience and fighting mentality that still is important for the team to retain.
Also Max is not comfortable with him. Everyone else he calls his mate and he has a mental advantage over. Only Lewis ruffles Max's feathers. So I hope things stay this close till the end of the season.

The car itself is still unproven. It goes well at this track but may be mediocre in Spa. Ferrari are not sorting themselves out and that's what making things look better than they are. Aston has run out of steam and so has Alpine.
Mclaren does not have much weakness now in the car, and W14 need to get to that point of not having any major weakness before it can challenge.

Just this race that ended minutes ago, hamilton threw away a very achievable 2nd or 3rd position, with that extremely poor first lap.

Lol. He threw away a 2nd? What race were you watching?
The car was dead in the water. Perez had to be on the podium as well as Norris or Piastri.
Hamilton got the maximum out of the car.
He was P4 no matter what. Did you see the time lost to Norris in the pit stops?
No way merc could have been on the podium.
Mclaren would simply manage their pace to beat Lewis if he magically held on to p1 after lap 1.

perez was in for the taking... he was 1.5s away but ran out of laps... had ham not had a weird brazil 2007 moment with his car on the hard stint he wouldve been p3 easy.

[omegacel71]

If Mercedes had quicker pit stops or if they had pitted him a few laps earlier he would be P3. They really should look into getting their pit stops sorted.

Mercedes in high fuel load is terrible.

[organic]

Car was 2nd fastest for the majority of the race

The poor race start and time lost around pitstop were unfortunate & cost P2. I think the car had the pace to beat Norris and hold off Perez

[Willy]

Any news on when the next set of upgrades coming?

[AR3-GP]

They seemed to be very marginal on cooling. This will come up early in the race where the average speed is lower so the average cooling power is lower. It tends to go away near the end as the average speed picks up, allowing for more air to enter the cooling system.

[chrisc90]

Its actually interesting when you look at the lap time in that view.

Lap 6/7 the McLarens totally dived off a cliff on tyre performance Maybe they were brought in too hard too fast instead of bring the tyres in gently.

[mstar]

Can someone at merc please talk to the team manager and ask them why for seasons your so SLOWWWWW at pitstops? they are a laughing stock they can't even match williams! Even Mclaren are better. Redbull are another league for fast pitstops

Regardless on pure pace on full tanks the pace is nowhere. The car is a donkey and the mclaren is really beautifully balanced when you look onboards, lewis had no chance to finish 2nd. Possible 3rd. The car just has no rear end, and merc had a much bigger wing than redbull and mclaren to get some rear end downforce.

[mstar]

https://ibb.co/Th7QwdV

Its actually interesting when you look at the lap time in that view.

Lap 6/7 the McLarens totally dived off a cliff on tyre performance Maybe they were brought in too hard too fast instead of bring the tyres in gently.

Toto mentioned they maybe made a mistake they went the direction to ease the tyres in where RB and Mclaren went fast straight away. Regardless the underlying pace on stints redbull and mclaren where faster but last stint i was puzzled the fuel came out and mercs got faster/.

[omegacel71]

Hamilton's last stint on the mediums was crazy. He and Russell had almost equal stints on the mediums with Russell pitting on Lap 46 and Hamilton on the 49th. In the lap times it almost looks like he was on average around half a second or more faster than him. Russell even had more fresh mediums. I am guessing the leclerc penalty made Russell take it easy maybe?

[ringo]

https://i.redd.it/kevk5fo5gqdb1.png

Car was 2nd fastest for the majority of the race

The poor race start and time lost around pitstop were unfortunate & cost P2. I think the car had the pace to beat Norris and hold off Perez

No the car is not second fastest. At one stint but not over the whole race distance.
The first stint it was cleard 3rd best.
There was no way the first stint could have run well. Lewis would have always lost out at the start.
Remember silverstone after the SC restart?
The Mclarens just have that innate advantage with the tyre warm up.
The woulda coulda shoulda doesnt determine how things would have gone exactly.
Hamilton ahead after lap 1means norris in p3 and piastri p4. Piastri would not have dived down the middle.
Max pushes then overtakes lewis when drs is enabled then its 2 mclarens vs one mercedes.
Mclaren apply pressure to hamilton stopping Norris early then extending piastri. Ham pits early and has to run on the hards and so on...
You can play out the permutations but Hamilton doesnt end up on the podium racing 2 mclarens and perez in the end.