2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Luscion]

Lewis' engine got damaged, so new PU for him this weekend

[Vanja #66]

What baffles me is that last year Blake Hinsey a former Formula 1 performance engineer at Red Bull Racing and Force India said that the F1 paddock is a small world for having many discussions between engineers at various teams hence the knowledge is easily transferred from a team to another. Not to mention that top figures in the business are switching teams often lately and yet Merc guys haven't figured out how to solve these problems 3 years in a row now ...

Knowing and understanding what a particular solution does and how to achieve it is one thing. Implementing it in another team, that uses a different set of tools with different characteristics is something very different. I strongly believe Mercedes' aero development methodology is not at the level of Top 3 teams and so they can't achieve a car with stable performance window.

Could it be that since this new ground effect car era they made a fundamental error focusing more on what downforce the Venturi tunnels would produce rather than knowing the fact that the key is to have a downforce level (or useful downforce as you said) that induce no bouncing/porpoising and focusing instead what diffuser could bring/add to the total downforce amount, by adopting the downwash solution, yearly having bigger sidepod undercut in order to get more high-velocity airflow to the back of the car, something that Red Bull team/Newey was king until 2022?

Something like that, but again - downwash sides are not the magic bullet. Mercedes did not focus on fully understanding W14B last season after they installed such sides in Monaco and in turn they don't understand W15 either.

[Luscion]

no upgrades for Merc this weekend

[Luscion]

Source - https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lewi ... /10594937/

[ringo]

Hamilton tends to get these quality issues on his car, even since he joined Mercedes. And they usually happen at the start of the season. The spark plug boot in Australia some years ago comes to memory. Very unlucky to have such a simple thing cause a retirement.

[AR3-GP]

Hamilton tends to get these quality issues on his car, even since he joined Mercedes. And they usually happen at the start of the season. The spark plug boot in Australia some years ago comes to memory. Very unlucky to have such a simple thing cause a retirement.

It happened to Russell last year in Australia. Seems a bit fluke overall considering that Mercedes supplied 8 PUs in the race and only 1 failed.

[Luscion]

Lewis saying it's the best the car has felt all season, he hasn't changed much and intends to pretty much leave it where it is. George also agrees the car is really nice to drive

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... /10595149/

[chrisc90]

Lewis saying it's the best the car has felt all season, he hasn't changed much and intends to pretty much leave it where it is. George also agrees the car is really nice to drive

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... /10595149/

Maybe this will be the first time they aren’t chasing the setup?

[venkyhere]

Lewis saying it's the best the car has felt all season, he hasn't changed much and intends to pretty much leave it where it is. George also agrees the car is really nice to drive

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... /10595149/

Maybe this will be the first time they aren’t chasing the setup?

All bets regarding Mercedes pace are off, until 5 race laps are done on a Sunday. Whatever they say and do on the previous two days has no relevance. That's my take.

[Luscion]

Lewis saying it's the best the car has felt all season, he hasn't changed much and intends to pretty much leave it where it is. George also agrees the car is really nice to drive

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... /10595149/

Maybe this will be the first time they aren’t chasing the setup?

Its at least promising, first time in a while i can remember Lewis being happy with the setup of the car from the first practice session, in FP2 Bradley Lord was being interviewed and said the drivers came back in after the first run and said it felt night and day compared to when they were there in both the W13 and W14, particularly through the S's and "through the bits where the cars are on the edge". Damon brought up the issues of temperature, Bradley said they're looking for a car that works through all types of conditions and the issue is/was (i dont know if theyve solved it) an imbalance in the rear and front axles and overworking the rear tires which has been limiting their pace. said they worked on the balance of the car with the rear and front tire temps to distribute it evenly but did point out that the goal is to carry it through to whole weekend.

[F1Krof]

Probably because the temperatures are low. Which coincides with what James Allison was talking.

[j_ste]

Genuinely feels like the worst lap for both of them this weekend...was the second lap in Q3.

So close to a really good session and now, a little bit deflated. James seemingly correct about low temps

[Luscion]

Genuinely feels like the worst lap for both of them this weekend...was the second lap in Q3.

So close to a really good session and now, a little bit deflated. James seemingly correct about low temps

Felt like there was more left in the car, i believe lewis messed up the first sector, either way their race pace looks very strong based on Russell's long runs on the mediums

[Hammerfist]

I see progress. They are still only the fifth best car in quali but it seems to me they’ve shrunk the gap in the high speed corners. Now it seems they have a more stable platform to build on. Bring on the upgrades. Put some load on that thing.

[AR3-GP]

Genuinely feels like the worst lap for both of them this weekend...was the second lap in Q3.

So close to a really good session and now, a little bit deflated. James seemingly correct about low temps

Nearly everyone was slower. Only the Ver, Per, and Alo improved in the second run.