Luscion wrote: ↑27 Oct 2024, 01:15
Ham saying they changed the rear wing after fp3 to get more downforce but just went slower, he's still getting 3 wheeling, had no rear end and doesnt think Merc can fight the Ferrari's, Lando and Max tomorrow, something Russell also said. Im interested to see what Shov and Toto say about it
https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/10/ ... d_id=60489
People were mentioning why they were running with a medium downforce wing in practice. I guess with limited running they couldn't do back to back comparisons. The fact that he's still struggling to drive with this upgrade is annoying news for merc's correlation issues. The big word being " Correlation " its one thing that hasn't been mentioned and im tired of experts and pundits brushing it under the carpet. Yes they need to fine tune and optimise the package but as Toto alluded to, They are on the limit with cost cap now. They are in between a rock and a hard place especially as this has a detrimental effect on the W16 car. The updates/upgrades there putting on will carry over to next years car before the regs change. You have to be abit delusional to think they can turn it around. The car still has a small window of peak performance and they said that was the main area of focus of the W15.
Its the false promises that do it for me, no other team over promises and under delivers like merc do. Theres numerous articles about the ups and downs of merc progress which Vanja touched on a few pages back and nailed it on the head imo (Page 371)
Now with Lewis with the age he's at he's admitted to being stubborn for not adapting his driving style to the W15 and has struggled with ground effect cars in general (That RACE video made a great video on it). Yes we know he prefers understeer , likes stability and rotation at the rear, has a great feel for the brakes etc but something that gets over looked is his precision.
Drivers target corners like guns and Lewis has a great confidence in that area, unfortunately with age and reflexes coming into this its understandable why he not as sharp as he was. I feel the modern merc cars he's driven are away from his natural inherent pace in qualy that he doesn't want to rediscover a newer technique that possibly might take away from what makes him good in race pace after all these years. Now factor in a peaky Merc with fikkle tyres and you end up here.
Ultimately with the new 2025 Ferrari, his bed in period will be absolutely crucial. I can just imagine when he steps in for the first time in bahrain, he will be trialling nuisances and things in his driving within those first few laps, when Lewis first came here in 2013 he knew during testing he would have problems with there braking system. Even last years car he drove for promotional footage he knew it would have the same characteristics as the W13. He can't afford to not adapt to another car. If it has traits he can exploit with his natural driving style then good but if he can't, well theres nowhere to hide with Leclerc in the other car.
OT. I expect merc to have a lacklustre race. They will probably be in no mans land and there's often big gaps around this track because of the tyre and engine management.
“And that’s part of the game, is being able to be adaptive, and we’ve got this new car – I don’t know how it’s going to handle, hopefully she’s great.”
