2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[wickedz50]

Is it possible that Mercedes will be fastest car in straightline speed in Canada?

I feel this will happen. Imola and Monaco are signs. I saw an image with Lap mini sector dominance. I think Charles, Lando and Russel was on it. The straight sections in Monaco were all Russel. Keeping in mind he had his clean air, and Charles was backing up the pack, so I wont get carried away. But it's a good sign.
George did also say the team over compensated for weaknesses of W14. A weakness was top speed. The W15 upgrade may be showing the resolution of that weakness.

Ferrari and Mclaren have won races so far, its not far away that we will see few wins coming up for Mercedes team as well. Who knows Canada might be the one?
Best wishes to the team

[ringo]

90% of the track should suit them.
Where they will lose lots of time is in the hairpin turn 10. I think turn 2 will also hurt them.
The car has to be setup for top speed but also to deal with low speed stuff.
If they didnt fix the understeer issues from China they could be dead in the water in Canada. The front end has a lot of understeer and poor response in reflex shaped corners like hairpins. Then we know if they fix this issue then low speed suffers.
So here's to hoping the new wing and the floor we got in Imola clicks together and the balance allows Lewis and George to feel they have something to fight with.
Braking from high speed is another weakness of the W14. I didnt see or hear enough from the drivers to say for sure w15 has this instability.
But it would definitely show up here if it did.
Then there is the matter of brake temperature management. We overheated the brakes quite a number of times in this regulation. So the team have to pay attention to the right amount of brake cooling and rim heating which prepares the tyre temperatures. A compromise has to be found to manage both over the race distance.

[Luscion]

[Cs98]

So George tells that Lewis essentially offered him the wing in favour of a coin toss because he didn't want the risk of a pit lane start in case of damage. Normally you'd give the wing to the guy ahead in the WDC, Russell in this case, but Merc is going out of their way to be fair to Lewis by offering the coin toss. Lewis giving up the wing after testing it on the sim says a lot. Either the wing wasn't that significant at Monaco, or Lewis is simply not confident to not crash without a spare, or a bit of both. Regardless it's not a great reflection on his confidence to be that passive, and it gives him a convenient excuse which he elected to use despite willingly giving the wing up.

Or he has checked out of the team, and is willing to let Russel carry the torch. That's the sense I get with Lewis.
He is not fighting for preference.
Even his response with KMag's wild driving in Miami shows Lewis is on vacation in Mercedes. He is quite chill. I can see him giving away the wing. He has nothing to prove, and also Lewis is smarter than people think. He knows how to play politics. What are the repercussions if he gets the wing? 1. Russel gets resentful, thinking it unfair the guy who turned his back is being favored, 2. Russel can now have the excuses that Lewis had the wing. 3. If Russel still beats Lewis, he can say he beat Lewis with a 0.2 second disadvantage...
Lewis did the right thing for his own reputation. Give George all the advantage. This lowers expectations and keeps the team happy. Remember he also jumped out of the way in Suzuka for Goerge. He is doing everything to avoid looking like an attention hog and taking away Russel's moment to lead. He is passing the baton now, but in a subtle way.
Here George, you are the captain now! I am but a shadow at dawn! Alonso and Lewis are political animals. Make no mistake with these older drivers. Likewise Hulkenberg. That's how he stole the Audi seat.

This didn't come out of nowhere though, Lewis and George have been neck and neck for 3 years now. Was he checked out the whole time? Or do we only get to see the "real Lewis" when he beats George? That would be convenient, but not very likely. More likely is that we are seeing a driver aging, and that going to Ferrari whilst being a prudent financial move will prove to be an even tougher challenge than what he currently has at Merc.

[bluechris]

The guy is bored guys and eager to change page in his life. He forgot how to drive suddenly? Not in a million years and we will see that soon.
All the previous years, Hamilton was the one who was checking new things and before the middle of the season he was in top form. It's Russel time now and it's fine imo.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Or he has checked out of the team, and is willing to let Russel carry the torch. That's the sense I get with Lewis.
He is not fighting for preference.
Even his response with KMag's wild driving in Miami shows Lewis is on vacation in Mercedes. He is quite chill. I can see him giving away the wing. He has nothing to prove, and also Lewis is smarter than people think. He knows how to play politics. What are the repercussions if he gets the wing? 1. Russel gets resentful, thinking it unfair the guy who turned his back is being favored, 2. Russel can now have the excuses that Lewis had the wing. 3. If Russel still beats Lewis, he can say he beat Lewis with a 0.2 second disadvantage...
Lewis did the right thing for his own reputation. Give George all the advantage. This lowers expectations and keeps the team happy. Remember he also jumped out of the way in Suzuka for Goerge. He is doing everything to avoid looking like an attention hog and taking away Russel's moment to lead. He is passing the baton now, but in a subtle way.
Here George, you are the captain now! I am but a shadow at dawn! Alonso and Lewis are political animals. Make no mistake with these older drivers. Likewise Hulkenberg. That's how he stole the Audi seat.

This didn't come out of nowhere though, Lewis and George have been neck and neck for 3 years now. Was he checked out the whole time? Or do we only get to see the "real Lewis" when he beats George? That would be convenient, but not very likely. More likely is that we are seeing a driver aging, and that going to Ferrari whilst being a prudent financial move will prove to be an even tougher challenge than what he currently has at Merc.

If i remember rightly, GR was pretty easily beaten last season, and 22, Pretty much only won because of lucky safety cars, and his win at Brazil which LH would have won, had Max not crashed into him. so i am not sure where this neck and neck is coming from, unless your talking specifically about qualy, but points are won on sunday. As GR knows with his ramdom drives into walls.

Lucky win in Brazil? With the safety car, Hamilton had a chance to challenge George for the win but couldn't. This is the second season Lewis is neck and neck with George, and that's something for a seven-time champion. If Hamilton were still in his prime, he would have no trouble with Russell.

[SKYnRacing24]

He sustained damage from Max's divebomb. Russell kept him at bay easily especially through sector 2. Russell has stepped it up this year in qualy. Race pace wise he's still missing that beast mode gear that ive seen from Lewis but all in all so far he's having a descent season.

With all this talk about Hamilton and Merc having issues. He's got to be careful that it doesn't snowball into a toxic mess where most of the team can't wait to see the back of him by the end of the year. Alot of eyes will be on him in Canada. One of his best tracks and has beaten Russell in both qualy and the race in 22 and 23. If he can't have a convincing weekend there then he really is on the backfoot.

Just looking back at there history. George was always monitoring Lewis in the garage before he got to F1(Merc development driver before 2019) I Remember how he was mentioning how Lewis put a weekend together and it was part of the reason why he was so hard to beat. I personally think he's learned to hide his pace in one lap more than Hamilton. it seems he has extra laptime in his locker when he needs it. Riding onboard with his laps he generally throws the car around more than Lewis, wether thats age thing or not is not clear. Driving style wise he has a mix of Lewis and Button.. If he keeps this form up then the qualy battle might be over by summer break lool

[CMC]

This didn't come out of nowhere though, Lewis and George have been neck and neck for 3 years now. Was he checked out the whole time? Or do we only get to see the "real Lewis" when he beats George? That would be convenient, but not very likely. More likely is that we are seeing a driver aging, and that going to Ferrari whilst being a prudent financial move will prove to be an even tougher challenge than what he currently has at Merc.

If i remember rightly, GR was pretty easily beaten last season, and 22, Pretty much only won because of lucky safety cars, and his win at Brazil which LH would have won, had Max not crashed into him. so i am not sure where this neck and neck is coming from, unless your talking specifically about qualy, but points are won on sunday. As GR knows with his ramdom drives into walls.

Lucky win in Brazil? With the safety car, Hamilton had a chance to challenge George for the win but couldn't. This is the second season Lewis is neck and neck with George, and that's something for a seven-time champion. If Hamilton were still in his prime, he would have no trouble with Russell.

Max thought Lewis would have won in Brazil '22. He knew that when they clashed together on track, and he said as much to GP on the radio immediately after the race. I don't have the exact quote, but something like "5 seconds for me but it cost Lewis the win." And similar comments to the journalists in the pen.

"To be honest I went around the outside and immediately felt he wasn't going to leave space, so I just went for it," Verstappen told Sky Sports.

"He didn't leave me space so I knew we were going to get together. It cost him the race win and it gave me five seconds. It wouldn't have mattered anything for my race."

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3502 ... ce-cleanly

You could certainly argue Lewis might have tried harder to avoid this clash, gotten past Max at a better opportunity, and then go on to possibly win with a clean race - but the point is Lewis was faster than George in the race on that day. I thought he would have won, and so did Max.

[PlatinumZealot]

So George tells that Lewis essentially offered him the wing in favour of a coin toss because he didn't want the risk of a pit lane start in case of damage. Normally you'd give the wing to the guy ahead in the WDC, Russell in this case, but Merc is going out of their way to be fair to Lewis by offering the coin toss. Lewis giving up the wing after testing it on the sim says a lot. Either the wing wasn't that significant at Monaco, or Lewis is simply not confident to not crash without a spare, or a bit of both. Regardless it's not a great reflection on his confidence to be that passive, and it gives him a convenient excuse which he elected to use despite willingly giving the wing up.

Or he has checked out of the team, and is willing to let Russel carry the torch. That's the sense I get with Lewis.
He is not fighting for preference.
Even his response with KMag's wild driving in Miami shows Lewis is on vacation in Mercedes. He is quite chill. I can see him giving away the wing. He has nothing to prove, and also Lewis is smarter than people think. He knows how to play politics. What are the repercussions if he gets the wing? 1. Russel gets resentful, thinking it unfair the guy who turned his back is being favored, 2. Russel can now have the excuses that Lewis had the wing. 3. If Russel still beats Lewis, he can say he beat Lewis with a 0.2 second disadvantage...
Lewis did the right thing for his own reputation. Give George all the advantage. This lowers expectations and keeps the team happy. Remember he also jumped out of the way in Suzuka for Goerge. He is doing everything to avoid looking like an attention hog and taking away Russel's moment to lead. He is passing the baton now, but in a subtle way.
Here George, you are the captain now! I am but a shadow at dawn! Alonso and Lewis are political animals. Make no mistake with these older drivers. Likewise Hulkenberg. That's how he stole the Audi seat.

This didn't come out of nowhere though, Lewis and George have been neck and neck for 3 years now. Was he checked out the whole time? Or do we only get to see the "real Lewis" when he beats George? That would be convenient, but not very likely. More likely is that we are seeing a driver aging, and that going to Ferrari whilst being a prudent financial move will prove to be an even tougher challenge than what he currently has at Merc.

Yes. When the car was good enough for 2nd place in 2023 we saw Lewis driving much better. It wasn't the real Lewis as you put it though. We will never see that with these heavy, lazy cars.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

If i remember rightly, GR was pretty easily beaten last season, and 22, Pretty much only won because of lucky safety cars, and his win at Brazil which LH would have won, had Max not crashed into him. so i am not sure where this neck and neck is coming from, unless your talking specifically about qualy, but points are won on sunday. As GR knows with his ramdom drives into walls.

Lucky win in Brazil? With the safety car, Hamilton had a chance to challenge George for the win but couldn't. This is the second season Lewis is neck and neck with George, and that's something for a seven-time champion. If Hamilton were still in his prime, he would have no trouble with Russell.

Max thought Lewis would have won in Brazil '22. He knew that when they clashed together on track, and he said as much to GP on the radio immediately after the race. I don't have the exact quote, but something like "5 seconds for me but it cost Lewis the win." And similar comments to the journalists in the pen.

"To be honest I went around the outside and immediately felt he wasn't going to leave space, so I just went for it," Verstappen told Sky Sports.

"He didn't leave me space so I knew we were going to get together. It cost him the race win and it gave me five seconds. It wouldn't have mattered anything for my race."

https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/3502 ... ce-cleanly

You could certainly argue Lewis might have tried harder to avoid this clash, gotten past Max at a better opportunity, and then go on to possibly win with a clean race - but the point is Lewis was faster than George in the race on that day. I thought he would have won, and so did Max.

So you are telling me that Norris also got a lucky win? If my mum had balls, she'd be my dad.

Russell had great pace through the Brazil weekend, sprint, and GP win... just lucky. Team LH really going "Lewis mode" with these excuses. After the summer break of '22, Lewis scored 94 points and George scored 117 points... just lucky.

[hollus]

Just a reminder, you did not come to F1T for the driver ying-yang.
I’d dare to say that you came to F1T precisely because of the “minimum talking”, in driver ying-yang, that is.
So keep it clean, there are more important things than reading into Hamilton’s mind.

Tech, please.

24 hour pause so everyone has time to carefully digest that message.

[hollus]

Reopened. Less driver yin-yang. Thanks.

[Jdn1327]

Is it possible that Mercedes will be fastest car in straightline speed in Canada?

Without DRS? Maybe.

Is it possible for a car that's efficient in a straight line not to be the same as with drs? Could that have something to do with the floor and diffuser?

[e30ernest]

Lewis was on Hot Ones, he pretty much blurted out how much he dislikes this year's car:

[Luscion]

Merc denying the claims that Kimi beat George in a "shootout" in testing, never the goal and they did their laps in differing conditions

https://www.racefans.net/2024/05/31/lat ... -mercedes/