I don't agree that Abu Dhabi is the litmus test. The w14 would always be bad at Vegas and Abu Dhabi, even with a working floor upgrade
Im just looking at the comparison to last year. Where the W13 did well in Mexico, Brazil but then fell again in Dubai. This year we have a new track for everyone so theres nothing to really compare it to, other than relative to others.
Most likely a fundamental issue with this chassis design, the fact that they're still limited in how big the can make their sidepods, not having enough downforce from the floor itself so needing to run bigger wings to compensateSpoutnik wrote: ↑05 Nov 2023, 22:09Idk what these clowns are doing because it's not easy to solve overall performance, but it's been two years the car is slow on the straight.
Gasly overtook Hamilton like an F2 car.
AM has proved you can be fast in straight with a Merc engine and still generate grip for the corners.
I mean you wont really know for sure until you go back and look at the data and setup in detail after the GP, even Sainz said they got it wrong this week as they were off their usual pace and wont know why until they go into the data, even RB didnt know what caused them to slide all over the place in signapore at first. George said most likely setup but they wont know details until they go through it.They at least know that them strapping that big wing on the back costs them in the straights and made also slow in the corners because of it. If i had to guess a combo of raising the floor to much and then using a big wing to try and gain back the downforce which is not what you want to do with these carsBig Tea wrote: ↑05 Nov 2023, 23:23Makes me think that not only do Merc not know what the problem is, but they do not have a clue how to go about finding out. Without some sort of stable baseline, even if it is slow but manageable, they have nothing to go on. What variables do they have ? TBH, If it was me I would be on the point of wondering if the tyres varied from week to week. And No, I am not saying they do, just I would be pulling my hair out, and I don't have much to start with. Roll on next year and hope the variable was in the car not the design ethos or software, or even the tunnel. But if the sim works fine one week and not the next, that is not likely is it?
After the sprint it was reported that they went for more ride height this weekend as a precaution after COTA, leading to balancing issues and consequently more tire wear.
I feel like they could've scored more points from the pitlane, but it's hard to give up p5/p8 on the grid.
