2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[TeamKoolGreen]

Summer break y'all. Lewis leads by 13 points... Gonna be tough for George when the "purple patch" part of the season begins.

Russell had a technical DNF and Hungary is his weakest track. Spa is where Russell beat Hamilton in a Willaims.

That was in the rain and with lots of external factors. George has had not been able to handle his W15 as well as Lewis in the rain two weekends in a row now. It lost him the lead in Silverstone and got him stuck in q1 yesterday.

Interesting thing now is that despite George's big lead in qualifying vs Lewis, even if he actually finished Silverstone on the pace he had that day, there's still a good chance Hamilton would be in the lead right now.

Unless George can find a way to stop going backwards on Sundays, I don't see the overall trend changing. If that comes from compromising quali a bit so he can be faster on Sundays, that could put him even further into Hamiltons range.

We've seen enough years of Hamilton at this stage to not underestimate his second half of year performances even when hes been written off early on in the season.

Obviously the car that over achieves over one lap is going to average down over a race. The same thing happens with Hulkenberg and Magnussen. Hulks car always averages down over a race. LH fans manage to turn getting beat in qualifying , into a positive for hamilton.

By mid June , Hamiltons best qualifying was 7th. And Russell led in race head to heads 2/7

[atanatizante]

Some thoughts ...


1. In Q1 HAM set the fastest time on a damp track with 30.5 degrees C until the red flag. He was 4 to 7 tenths faster than both Macca drivers and VER. After resuming Q1 they all went to the same worn softs used previously and was beaten by RIC posting a faster lap due to a new set of softs.

This situation resembles FP3 in Silverstone when there was 24 degrees C on the track and using intermediates, which is a soft compound, although it`s a C4 rather than a C5 tyre. Also in a wet track and low temps in Canada HAM setup his car to work in those types of conditions. So knowing that the car works better/has an optimal window in cooler conditions and wet/damp track they setup the car accordingly.

Therefore in Canada, they went for a dry setup, and it was the better choice for being a wet/dry race based on cooler track temps. Then in Silverstone, they chose a mixed setup or more towards damp/dry track compared to RUS dry setup and it was a winning choice at that time on those conditions. Here at Hungary, they choose the same setup towards to a damp rather than a dry track as they did in Silverstone and paid the price for overheating the rears, especially the hard ones.

You could say that hards have a higher operation window and would cope well with the hotter track temps that were on the race but you must take into account that they setup the car for more load and hence get heat into the tyres more quickly. HAM in the first stint was just managing the mediums and that`s the reason he did not overcook them but after the undercut, it wasn’t the case and he just had to build a gap in order to make that undercut to VER work. And this situation was twice and on the same hards.

2. Seeing the times set above in Q1 we could see in contrast that MCL38`s and VER`s RB20 were setup more for a dry race, protecting the rears (in VER`s case they induced understeer to the car) and good traction on the exit of slow corners, particularly on MCL38`s case.

3. HAM said after the race that both MCL38 and VER`s cars were very fast in S3 and I`d wonder if had they not yet implemented the same new heave/damper system at the rear of the car as they did on the front axle. Could it be this trick one other reason why MCL38 is the best car now (you just have to see how they ride the chicane at this track compared to others) besides the fact that has more downforce and maybe the car was set softer (at least at the rear axle) both for protecting the rears and to get more traction out of the slow corner?

[GrizzleBoy]

Russell had a technical DNF and Hungary is his weakest track. Spa is where Russell beat Hamilton in a Willaims.

That was in the rain and with lots of external factors. George has had not been able to handle his W15 as well as Lewis in the rain two weekends in a row now. It lost him the lead in Silverstone and got him stuck in q1 yesterday.

Interesting thing now is that despite George's big lead in qualifying vs Lewis, even if he actually finished Silverstone on the pace he had that day, there's still a good chance Hamilton would be in the lead right now.

Unless George can find a way to stop going backwards on Sundays, I don't see the overall trend changing. If that comes from compromising quali a bit so he can be faster on Sundays, that could put him even further into Hamiltons range.

We've seen enough years of Hamilton at this stage to not underestimate his second half of year performances even when hes been written off early on in the season.

Obviously the car that over achieves over one lap is going to average down over a race. The same thing happens with Hulkenberg and Magnussen. Hulks car always averages down over a race. LH fans manage to turn getting beat in qualifying , into a positive for hamilton.

By mid June , Hamiltons best qualifying was 7th. And Russell led in race head to heads 2/7

That's a very strange thing to say isn't it?

Looking at the standings and general trajectories through the season, surely the person who has shown that sacrificing the qualifying performance and chasing race performance has been a positive has not been the fans on the Internet, but actually Lewis Hamilton himself on the track?

[Tvetovnato]

https://postimg.cc/BjmsPT2X

Some thoughts ...


1. In Q1 HAM set the fastest time on a damp track with 30.5 degrees C until the red flag. He was 4 to 7 tenths faster than both Macca drivers and VER. After resuming Q1 they all went to the same worn softs used previously and was beaten by RIC posting a faster lap due to a new set of softs.

This situation resembles FP3 in Silverstone when there was 24 degrees C on the track and using intermediates, which is a soft compound, although it`s a C4 rather than a C5 tyre. Also in a wet track and low temps in Canada HAM setup his car to work in those types of conditions. So knowing that the car works better/has an optimal window in cooler conditions and wet/damp track they setup the car accordingly.

Therefore in Canada, they went for a dry setup, and it was the better choice for being a wet/dry race based on cooler track temps. Then in Silverstone, they chose a mixed setup or more towards damp/dry track compared to RUS dry setup and it was a winning choice at that time on those conditions. Here at Hungary, they choose the same setup towards to a damp rather than a dry track as they did in Silverstone and paid the price for overheating the rears, especially the hard ones.

You could say that hards have a higher operation window and would cope well with the hotter track temps that were on the race but you must take into account that they setup the car for more load and hence get heat into the tyres more quickly. HAM in the first stint was just managing the mediums and that`s the reason he did not overcook them but after the undercut, it wasn’t the case and he just had to build a gap in order to make that undercut to VER work. And this situation was twice and on the same hards.

2. Seeing the times set above in Q1 we could see in contrast that MCL38`s and VER`s RB20 were setup more for a dry race, protecting the rears (in VER`s case they induced understeer to the car) and good traction on the exit of slow corners, particularly on MCL38`s case.

3. HAM said after the race that both MCL38 and VER`s cars were very fast in S3 and I`d wonder if had they not yet implemented the same new heave/damper system at the rear of the car as they did on the front axle. Could it be this trick one other reason why MCL38 is the best car now (you just have to see how they ride the chicane at this track compared to others) besides the fact that has more downforce and maybe the car was set softer (at least at the rear axle) both for protecting the rears and to get more traction out of the slow corner?

Are you saying that Mercedes setup their car for a damp and cool track in Hungary when everyone knew the race would be dry and hot? Is the difference in setups in Canada and Silverstone backed up by any team information?

[Lasssept]

Joe Saward:

..Even Mercedes thinks it is unlikely that he (Verstappen) will move before the end of 2026, by which time everyone will have been able to see which of the new power units are the most effective.

Thus it is now virtually certain that Mercedes will soon name Andrea Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement in 2025. In the last couple of weeks, Antonelli has come on strong in Formula 2, winning the Sprint race in Silverstone with aplomb and then driving to an assured victory in the Feature race in Budapest. His testing results with Mercedes are being suppressed (deliberately) to avoid building up expectations, but any doubts there were seem to have gone, even if the team keeps saying nothing is yet decided, the soon-to-be 18-year-old is clearly a prodigious talent, who will be a star of the future in F1.

What is interesting is that George Russell does not yet have a contract for 2026. This does not mean hat George will be on the move, despite some wild stories about Audi. It is safe to assume that Russell will be re-signed but the team wants to keep some options open, in case Verstappen does come on the market. There is no real hope for Carlos Sainz.

https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2024/07 ... senhausen/

[Luscion]

• Things theyve been working on have been working very strongly

• Allison doesnt think they're near the limit of this concept

• no mention of upgrades for spa

[Matt2725]

• Things theyve been working on have been working very strongly

• Allison doesnt think they're near the limit of this concept

• no mention of upgrades for spa

Potentially bodes well for next year as well then.

[chrisc90]

Didnt Allison say they were near enough at the ceiling not so long back?

[Matt2725]

Didnt Allison say they were near enough at the ceiling not so long back?

No I'm pretty sure he said he believed other concepts were approaching their ceilings (seemed to imply RBR, which potentially looks not so far off the mark).

[maygun]

Didnt Allison say they were near enough at the ceiling not so long back?

He said this generation of cars has strict theoretical limits for their performance, not that they are reaching the ceiling.

[Luscion]

Lewis and George confirmed Merc has upgrades this weekend
https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/news/lewi ... belgian-gp

Lewis Hamilton: “ We have an update this weekend, I’m really looking forward to seeing how I feel on track and taking another step in the right direction.

https://x.com/LucianoYoma/status/1816512904692474281

Russell: “ As Lewis said, we’ve made some updates, which is really exciting, to see if we can make a step forward after what we did in Canada a few races ago

https://x.com/LucianoYoma/status/1816515047717470464

[cplchanb]

Lewis and George confirmed Merc has upgrades this weekend
https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/news/lewi ... belgian-gp

Lewis Hamilton: “ We have an update this weekend, I’m really looking forward to seeing how I feel on track and taking another step in the right direction.

https://x.com/LucianoYoma/status/1816512904692474281

Russell: “ As Lewis said, we’ve made some updates, which is really exciting, to see if we can make a step forward after what we did in Canada a few races ago

https://x.com/LucianoYoma/status/1816515047717470464

so far looks like theres new floor edges and tiny vanes stuck to the underside of it.

[Luscion]

Lewis has gone from a low downforce to a medium downforce rear wing

[j_ste]

An example of why they are called updates and not upgrades.

A lot of work to be done tonight

[Hammerfist]

So far the car is not competitive at all in S2 while S1 isn't exactly fast either. Not enough downforce and perhaps running lower engine modes? The Mclarens are going to one-two again it looks like. Max coming from behind has no chance of beating them.