2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Luscion]

I dont have much evidence for what I am about to say, but i think George is also a learning machine. He seems to be putting in more hard work studying the driving and the tracks than Lewis is. He builds up his weekends stronger and he is also aware of the other cars and how they are progressing. Very astute drive is George.
Lewis like most of us is a bit long in the tooth and jaded. That comes with age. But he needs to get back into the freshman mode if he is to have any chance of another championship.
A win for George would add a nice lump of points to the 12 point gap already existing between them.

Yeah i have heard he admitted he used lewiss data to get faster this weekend.

Yup, he did, maybe lewis should hide his tactics until quali But the fact that russell is saying this makes me believe Lewis more with him saying his car just didnt have any grip despite not changing anything. Russell also thinks Merc are the fastest car this weekend

This morning we were so quick,” he said. “Lewis was driving so well and he was miles ahead of me and I had to look at his data to try and understand what that was.

“The tyres are so sensitive and Lewis was doing something a bit unique with the tyres and I implemented that in Q1 and straight away we were top of the timesheets.”

https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/arti ... 77ee5np4qo

[ringo]

Lewis need to go back to the Nico Rosberg days. Hide everything until the last run. But it's almost impossible to hide. The engineers have access to every meter of track data these days.
Also I think Mercedes is feeding Russel all the cues as they did back in the day with Nico. Russel is not studying the data on his own; his engineers are feeding him the little nuances with Lewis laps.
Russel is the future, and Mercedes will squeeze every last drop out of Lewis' data as they can before he leaves.

[ringo]

Sector times are below and as you can see George went faster without a tow on his second run in sector 3, and it was purple. That is where he gained a big chunk of time compared to Lewis, would love to see a side by side of both laps to see where it is gained.

1st Run
https://i.postimg.cc/TPnm6cZn/1st-run.jpg

2nd Run
https://i.postimg.cc/9MV9F7hK/2nd-run.jpg

The perfect LH lap of his best sector times still wouldn't have been enough, both GR laps are faster.

Looks like GR got a monster exit from the hairpin on his second run. Wonder what it would have been had he had a tow.

Wonder how many more points of DF LH is running if any. Might just be down to bravery.

I just watched both of their first q3 runs. George made a snall mistake in entry to turn 2 while lewis had a bigger moment at the exit of the last turn. That cost him a lot of time, 2.5 tenths according to Bono. I dont think the tow was that significant for george because albon was too far ahead. So yeah the main loss was the last turn.

Lewis frequently loses the car a bit at the end of his laps. Maybe he works the tires too hard earlier on. I can recall even his last pole lap in Hungary had a moment in the last turn. Silverstone 21’ also he had a moment in the last turn.

The tow had an impact. It's even noticeable on the lap trace data.

[ringo]

Toto didnt seem very happy in his post qualy interview.
I do wonder if he prefers a Lewis P1 ovrr a George one?
Or maybe
1. He is still not happy Lewis is leaving.
2. He knows something we don't about the race pace.

[JordanMugen]

Lewis need to go back to the Nico Rosberg days. Hide everything until the last run. But it's almost impossible to hide.

It's a team! Some kind of Rossi-Lorenzo style barrier in the pit garage is the last thing Mercedes GP, as a chasing WCC team, needs -- that would be absurd.

Anyway great to see the new front wing working and may Mercedes GP be consistently in the mix with Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull from now.

Toto didnt seem very happy in his post qualy interview.

Toto was smiling and seemed very happy about the fine pole position on Sky TV.

1. He is still not happy Lewis is leaving.

Mercedes GP didn't meet Hamilton's contractual terms, it is what it is. Mercedes GP have the option to sign Sainz (or Ocon) if they want an experienced and fast driver, or Antonelli (or Aron) if they want to take a chance on a rookie.

[Luscion]

Toto didnt seem very happy in his post qualy interview.
I do wonder if he prefers a Lewis P1 ovrr a George one?
Or maybe
1. He is still not happy Lewis is leaving.
2. He knows something we don't about the race pace.

what do you mean with 2. statement? everyone in Merc seemingly thinks the race pace is very strong and they're the team to beat or i'm i misunderstanding what your saying?

[TeamKoolGreen]

There is strong belief that Ocon has signed a 1 year deal with Mercedes.

GR can improve by reviewing LH data and making adjustments. He benefits from LH experience.

LH can't gleen much from GR

[Dunlay]

GR can improve by reviewing LH data and making adjustments. He benefits from LH experience.

LH can't gleen much from GR.

This is one of the reasons I think we had the strange Monaco interview from LH. I think the other reason is LH being required to trust engineering on setup because he's leaving and they won't explain the why to him anymore.

Is it that hard to accept that a young, talented driver is faster than the old champion? Lewis is only going to get slower whereas George and other young drivers continue to add a bit more raw pace for the next couple years and also improve race pace. It's the same journey Lewis went through, but now he is completing the winter of his career.

I see difficult times ahead for Lewis against Leclerc, who in my opinion is currently the monster of qualifying. But, Lewis can always count on his race day experience to bail himself out. Hope he gets a good race engineer.

[Dunlay]

Lewis need to go back to the Nico Rosberg days. Hide everything until the last run. But it's almost impossible to hide. The engineers have access to every meter of track data these days.
Also I think Mercedes is feeding Russel all the cues as they did back in the day with Nico. Russel is not studying the data on his own; his engineers are feeding him the little nuances with Lewis laps.
Russel is the future, and Mercedes will squeeze every last drop out of Lewis' data as they can before he leaves.

Has anyone officially reported this is or just tin foil hat? Studying data goes both ways, hiding pace goes both ways. Ultimately, putting together a good qualifying to beat your team mate takes a lot more than just studying the data. As per what we heard from James Vowels, Lewis does loads of things to learn through each lap in each practice. Qualifying is just the culmination of all that he gathers for himself. I don't know if that data is structured to allow other driver to fully understand what Lewis was trying and then use the best parts of it in his own lap to beat Lewis. His glory days of outstanding qualifying performance are most behind him now. Sad, but true. We don't get to see electrifying Lewis on the ragged edge, pulling incredible laps was a sight to behold.

[Jdn1327]

I think we're gonna see a Mercedes 1,2 today. Both cars looked good in heavy fuel mode.

[Cs98]

Comparison of the first lap, lewis seems to be needing to make more corrections, especially at the last chicane, Karun also talks about the tow. still trying to find the their second laps

It's mainly the final corner where Lewis loses time. George is maybe 1 tenth ahead going into there, 3 tenths ahead coming out.

[Cs98]

GR can improve by reviewing LH data and making adjustments. He benefits from LH experience.

LH can't gleen much from GR.

This is one of the reasons I think we had the strange Monaco interview from LH. I think the other reason is LH being required to trust engineering on setup because he's leaving and they won't explain the why to him anymore.

Of course he can. All the races up until now where George has been setting the pace throughout practice Lewis would have taken the exact same approach of reviewing his data to see where he can improve on his lap. Being older and more experienced doesn't mean you can't learn from someone younger, especially if they are outperforming you. The stopwatch does not care.

[Hammerfist]

The perfect LH lap of his best sector times still wouldn't have been enough, both GR laps are faster.

Looks like GR got a monster exit from the hairpin on his second run. Wonder what it would have been had he had a tow.

Wonder how many more points of DF LH is running if any. Might just be down to bravery.

I just watched both of their first q3 runs. George made a snall mistake in entry to turn 2 while lewis had a bigger moment at the exit of the last turn. That cost him a lot of time, 2.5 tenths according to Bono. I dont think the tow was that significant for george because albon was too far ahead. So yeah the main loss was the last turn.

Lewis frequently loses the car a bit at the end of his laps. Maybe he works the tires too hard earlier on. I can recall even his last pole lap in Hungary had a moment in the last turn. Silverstone 21’ also he had a moment in the last turn.

The tow had an impact. It's even noticeable on the lap trace data.

It’s not where he gained the most. Russell had a faster s3 without the tow in his last run just because he had a better final corner. I don’t think the tow effect gained him more than a tenth.
I also think he’s running lower downforce because his trap speeds were considerably higher than Lewis all day long.

[denyall]

To all of you who responded allow me to elaborate:

LH can't gleen much from GR, meaning he isn't learning anything he doesn't already know or has already tried from what GR is doing on track. He can't get ten years back.

If GR is already quick by being on the ragged edge and then sees the LH is gaining on him in in specific ways by doing specific things he can improve whereas LH might be able to see that GR is fast everywhere because he's closer to the edge, something that LH isn't capable of achieving or willing to risk these days.

Source of this line of thinking is GR himself, stating he looked at LH data for Canada and found where to improve.

[ToffeeTyres]

I think reading data from team mates should be banned how can a driver have an edge over their team mate through their natural talent. No matter who the team or team mates are I find this unfair and goes to show that it’s not right. Like George said Lewis was flying and had to look into the data and what Lewis was doing with tyre etc too. He copied it learned and used it and improved his times. Without data could George have done that by himself? The team will have been feeding him tips too from data also. It’s just not right and would say the same if it was the other way around it’s been my feeling for years. Just ban it and let’s see who really are the best between team mates