2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

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Lewis missed a big opportunity there with the slides. Looks like tyres werent warm.
Max also slid and Lando. But yes he is in a good position to get a good points gap to Perez this weekend both in sprint and the race.

Perez is miles off at this high speed track as expected. Big points can come. Russell should play the team game and invert with Lewis as every point counts but we know that won't happen.

Behind George and Lewis you have Alonso and Leclerc who might not challenge merc on race pace & can act as a buffer to the McLarens. Feels like a double podium is quite possible despite my expectations for the weekend being low for Merc coming in. Credit to both drivers for that q3 despite the slide from Lewis.

[Hammerfist]

Lewis missed a big opportunity there with the slides. Looks like tyres werent warm.
Max also slid and Lando. But yes he is in a good position to get a good points gap to Perez this weekend both in sprint and the race.

Perez is miles off at this high speed track as expected. Big points can come. Russell should play the team game and invert with Lewis as every point counts but we know that won't happen.

Behind George and Lewis you have Alonso and Leclerc who might not challenge merc on race pace & can act as a buffer to the McLarens. Feels like a double podium is quite possible despite my expectations for the weekend being low for Merc coming in. Credit to both drivers for that q3 despite the slide from Lewis.

Merc just keeps on overachieving. They have the third best car yet start 2nd and 3rd. These two drivers are pushing each other unlike any other pairing on the field in quali. A double podium is possible indeed. I just hope everyone gets through turn one cleanly. Max will disappear, but the race behind him should be very interesting.

[ringo]

Credit to George for his qualy performances this year. He has been near the front when the track suits the car in most cases. Lewis has been close but slips up in the last moments.
I do expect some classic Hamilton racing in the sprint. He may just be P-1.
Russel could be a good sport and "cross racing lines" with Max and delay his championship at least till Sunday.

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Russell is carrying a fair bit more downforce than Hamilton. Consistently a few km/h lower speeds for Russell than ham. Could have a role to play on Sunday.

[dans79]

Credit to George for his qualy performances this year. He has been near the front when the track suits the car in most cases. Lewis has been close but slips up in the last moments.

PIA passed Lewis just after the second to last turn, and thus Lewis had to slow down to get a gap. His tires thus weren't in the right window, and it cost him. It happened to almost all the drivers during qualifying at some point, seems getting the softs in the window, and keeping them there required driving on a knife's edge.

[r85]

Russell is carrying a fair bit more downforce than Hamilton. Consistently a few km/h lower speeds for Russell than ham. Could have a role to play on Sunday.

Hm I thought it was the other way around. I do feel Hamilton will be better in the race, because sliding is less likely thanks to improving track conditions and the lower df setup is kinder to the tires.

[CHT]

Russell is carrying a fair bit more downforce than Hamilton. Consistently a few km/h lower speeds for Russell than ham. Could have a role to play on Sunday.

Hm I thought it was the other way around. I do feel Hamilton will be better in the race, because sliding is less likely thanks to improving track conditions and the lower df setup is kinder to the tires.

track condition may worsen with sands blowing onto the track. which is very common in Qatar especially no support race

[AR3-GP]

Russell is carrying a fair bit more downforce than Hamilton. Consistently a few km/h lower speeds for Russell than ham. Could have a role to play on Sunday.

Hm I thought it was the other way around. I do feel Hamilton will be better in the race, because sliding is less likely thanks to improving track conditions and the lower df setup is kinder to the tires.

track condition may worsen with sands blowing onto the track. which is very common in Qatar especially no support race

It is claimed that it will be much less windy on Sunday.

Merc was quite fast today. They should get at least 1 car on the podium assuming they survive the 1st lap.

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Russell is carrying a fair bit more downforce than Hamilton. Consistently a few km/h lower speeds for Russell than ham. Could have a role to play on Sunday.

Hm I thought it was the other way around. I do feel Hamilton will be better in the race, because sliding is less likely thanks to improving track conditions and the lower df setup is kinder to the tires.

George 100% ran more downforce. Telemetry has George's top speed consistently at 315 km/h while Hamilton's was hitting 318. Free practice was the same and you can see the difference in speedtrace only emerges at the tail end of the straight

[Mchamilton]

Russell is carrying a fair bit more downforce than Hamilton. Consistently a few km/h lower speeds for Russell than ham. Could have a role to play on Sunday.

Hm I thought it was the other way around. I do feel Hamilton will be better in the race, because sliding is less likely thanks to improving track conditions and the lower df setup is kinder to the tires.

George 100% ran more downforce. Telemetry has George's top speed consistently at 315 km/h while Hamilton's was hitting 318. Free practice was the same and you can see the difference in speedtrace only emerges at the tail end of the straight

It's a pretty consistent trend for lewis to run less downforce than George

[SSScoffee]

Does it have to do with balance?

[j_ste]

With this new FIA directive.

Do they have enough tyres for the remainder of the weekend? It really seems like they dont...any of the teams

[chrisc90]

I hinted at this in the race thread.

Presuming they all run the medium for the sprint, and most will have to likely use a used soft for the shootout for the grid for the sprint.

Sprint aside, that leaves everyone, except Red Bull, with 2 new Mediums (RB have 3).

With the strategy and a possible 20lap limit for the tyres it only really leaves which order you run them in to gain a advantage. Most will likely use the medium last given the pace advantage at lower fuel,

It effectively runs out any pitting under a safety car of VSC, unless your within 1-3 laps of the tyre window.

[AR3-GP]

Presuming they all run the medium for the sprint, and most will have to likely use a used soft for the shootout for the grid for the sprint.

Teams are required to use new mediums and new softs in the sprint qualifying.

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Even without the deleted laptime Lewis was not making it to SQ3 as it wasn't enough to get P10. Oh well it's only the sprint but it seems Russell's setup was the way to go so far this weekend - more downforce working well with the low grip surface