2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[GrizzleBoy]

If I'm Lewis, I'm not going to give a damn about how it feels to get the win here.

If I'm Lewis, the biggest thing I want to know is why I'm racing on saturday and sunday with a car approaching 2kg heavier than.that of my team mate, given that every kg removed lowers laptime by a tenth or so which amounts to seconds in total at the end of the race.

How many times could this have happened at tracks where there was a cool down lap to pick up rubber and nobody would have noticed?

And considering the gap was 0.5 at the chequered flag and that he could have had a couple.more laps to attempt to.pass.

And that's before we even talk about Lewis saying they switched their strategies without telling him.

Or the seeming lack of any chatter about whether George was on the one stop and what he needed pushing wise to maintain his lead.

And then there's Lewis concluding early on that his car will not be faster than George's on Saturdays this year.

It all has a bit of a poo poo smell to it.

It seems you’re saying that RUS has been underweight all season & it’s only now, here at Spa that the stewards figured out the ruse & stopped it? I’m not sure bro, truth be told.

What I will say is, the cheat (if real) has now been exposed. I’d therefore expect HAM to crush him moving forward.

I'm not sure either, but if merc themselves are saying that not having a cooldown lap or overly worn tyres was the issue, that doesn't explain that whole extra 1.5kg of weight on Lewis car.......and if there was a cooldown lap and they got that extra couple hundred grams of pickup per tyre on the car, it would.mean GEorge could have went through quali and the race with a lighter car than his team mate did and nobody would have been the wiser.

So that pickup argument actually makes the whole thing even more damning.

[ismail1991]

So that's 2 races now where Russell was ahead of Hamilton , but Hamilton won and Russell DNF'd for reasons that weren't his fault..

The points race between them is over. George did his job , his team didnt. In a year or less , some fans will say hamilton dog walked Russell in 2024. But it's just not true of course

Which are those races in silverstone lewis passed hime like 15 laps earlier than his retirement. After lewis passed him , george was still fast and pressured others. For today, lewis was already the faster guy, the lack of information given by the team to lewis and better strategy to George resulted this result. Lewis could have pushed harder and open more a gap in the 2nd stint. In addition, i can say In singapore lewis could have won if the team made the right choice and put him in the front

[TeamKoolGreen]

So that's 2 races now where Russell was ahead of Hamilton , but Hamilton won and Russell DNF'd for reasons that weren't his fault..

The points race between them is over. George did his job , his team didnt. In a year or less , some fans will say hamilton dog walked Russell in 2024. But it's just not true of course

Neither he as leading GBR when he retired nor he was winning today until team betrayed Ham. I will say it poetic justice

Russell was on the pole that race. And issues with the car started on lap 4. And I was just saying he was ahead at one point , not at the time of retirement.

"poetic justice lol" Stay classy. There will be some poetic justice in the next half of the session alright.

[JordanMugen]

A superb race victory by Lewis Hamilton as it turns out! 105 wins!

[Russell disqualified for underweight car obviously. An unusual error. ]

They probably didn't expect so much mass loss due to tire wear on a one-stop

Is it really due to 375g wear per tyre? Curious if true!

[FittingMechanics]

If the pickup can be half a kilo per tyre, that can explain it.

Doesn't mean Russell had a lighter car, the difference could be just the tyre weight.

Btw I think the bigger issue is that Mercedes "drained" the car improperly. They actively tried to cheat. That is a huge issue and they need to be penalized extra.

[JordanMugen]

Btw I think the bigger issue is that Mercedes "drained" the car improperly. They actively tried to cheat. That is a huge issue and they need to be penalized extra.

The team did the same during the Button era with the extra fuel tank.

Pretty bad the team tried to lie about having drained all the fuel aswell.

BAR were banned for two races for what appears to be exactly the same behaviour.

Could the team be banned again for two races? Surely not? Or perhaps?

Don't FOM agreements require FOM to front with 20 cars now? Not that this would be a FOM decision, rather an FIA one.

[TeamKoolGreen]

So that's 2 races now where Russell was ahead of Hamilton , but Hamilton won and Russell DNF'd for reasons that weren't his fault..

The points race between them is over. George did his job , his team didnt. In a year or less , some fans will say hamilton dog walked Russell in 2024. But it's just not true of course

Which are those races in silverstone lewis passed hime like 15 laps earlier than his retirement. After lewis passed him , george was still fast and pressured others. For today, lewis was already the faster guy, the lack of information given by the team to lewis and better strategy to George resulted this result. Lewis could have pushed harder and open more a gap in the 2nd stint. In addition, i can say In singapore lewis could have won if the team made the right choice and put him in the front

Silverstone , I seem to remember George had the pole. And Mercedes said the issues with the car started happening on lap 4.

[Peter Piper]

If the pickup can be half a kilo per tyre, that can explain it.

Doesn't mean Russell had a lighter car, the difference could be just the tyre weight.

Btw I think the bigger issue is that Mercedes "drained" the car improperly. They actively tried to cheat. That is a huge issue and they need to be penalized extra.

Exactly. Toto's face on 'winning' plus the incorrect fuel drain makes it all look pretty fishy.

[Just_a_fan]

So that's 2 races now where Russell was ahead of Hamilton , but Hamilton won and Russell DNF'd for reasons that weren't his fault..

The points race between them is over. George did his job , his team didnt. In a year or less , some fans will say hamilton dog walked Russell in 2024. But it's just not true of course

Hamilton overtook Russell on track in Silverstone. In Spa, Russell's car was underweight. That's not Russell's fault but neither is it Hamilton's. Hamilton qualified better, took the lead on track and then led the entire race only for Russell to benefit at the end. And if it had been anyone other than Hamilton in P2, Russell would have been toast at the end - Hamilton was never going to risk a DNF for either car so Russell was pretty safe. If it had been Lando or Max in P2, Russell would have been left for dead. Hamilton played the careful team mate.

[Just_a_fan]

Doesn't mean Russell had a lighter car, the difference could be just the tyre weight.

Er, yes it does. He had a lighter car because when they weighed it, it was 1.5kg underweight where Hamilton's car wasn't. That's what "lighter car" means.

[214270]

[JordanMugen]

it would.mean GEorge could have went through quali and the race with a lighter car than his team mate did and nobody would have been the wiser.

The parts are not exactly the same weight. There is production variation. Hence Shovlin (IIRC) explaining that Hamilton's car was only ~500g heavier than Russell in Australia 2022, despite Hamilton running 2kg of extra sensors. It was due to stacked variations -- e.g., heavier tub on Russell's car at the time.

[Hammerfist]

Wow just took a nap after the race and I wake up to all this madness.
Well congratulations Lewis on 105. Deserved winner.
I'll be very interested to know what is Lewis's exact car weight now.
Could this explain the qualifying disparity in the dry this year while Russell hasn't come close to outqualify Lewis in the wet?
If Merc is truly resorting to cheating that would be lame.

[FittingMechanics]

Doesn't mean Russell had a lighter car, the difference could be just the tyre weight.

Er, yes it does. He had a lighter car because when they weighed it, it was 1.5kg underweight where Hamilton's car wasn't. That's what "lighter car" means.

What interests me is the weight without wheels. Is the only difference due to tire weight or they put less ballast in Russells car.

Obviously they were underweight and need to be disqualified. But it is possible the difference is due to tire wear.

Interesting thought is that long one stopper can run underweight during the race and then change tires or pickup a lot of junk on tires and be legal.

Seems like a bad way to police weight. Why is it not weight without tires?

[Jdn1327]

Pretty bad the team tried to lie about having drained all the fuel aswell.

It's also more shocking that the car wasn't actually 1.5kgs underweight. You also have to add to that the fuel sample given to the fia. So it was more like 2.5kga.