2025 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Lasssept]

@F1GuyDan
"Your weekly reminder that George Russell is still the only driver to have a top 5 result in every competitive session in 2025."

[ringo]

If it aint broke dont fix it.
If W16 gets as fast as MCL39 Russell will be champion.
Highly underrated driver. No errors this year and still has the race craft, speed, and wheel to wheel abilities.
Mercedes can put their fate in his hands if they deliver a Pole position car next year.

Russel used his tyres in the best way they could be used last race. Kimi didnt go over the cliff, but he wasnt close to George either. So when it nets out Russel maximized the car.
Mercedes do have similar traits to last year. Either the car qualifies well and chews the tyres in the race, or it has a very stubborn warm up for qualifying and steady deg in the race.

[Jdn1327]

If it aint broke dont fix it.
If W16 gets as fast as MCL39 Russell will be champion.
Highly underrated driver. No errors this year and still has the race craft, speed, and wheel to wheel abilities.
Mercedes can put their fate in his hands if they deliver a Pole position car next year.

Russel used his tyres in the best way they could be used last race. Kimi didnt go over the cliff, but he wasnt close to George either. So when it nets out Russel maximized the car.
Mercedes do have similar traits to last year. Either the car qualifies well and chews the tyres in the race, or it has a very stubborn warm up for qualifying and steady deg in the race.

100% agree with this...Russell is a legit title contender as he has been the most consistent out of the top 4 teams...Mercedes really need to get behind him now...if he can maintain a deficit to piastri/norris/verstappen of about 15pts...he is really in with a shout...and don't count out the constructors as well. Kimi is a bit raw but he gets results.

[SB15]

If it aint broke dont fix it.
If W16 gets as fast as MCL39 Russell will be champion.
Highly underrated driver. No errors this year and still has the race craft, speed, and wheel to wheel abilities.
Mercedes can put their fate in his hands if they deliver a Pole position car next year.

Russel used his tyres in the best way they could be used last race. Kimi didnt go over the cliff, but he wasnt close to George either. So when it nets out Russel maximized the car.
Mercedes do have similar traits to last year. Either the car qualifies well and chews the tyres in the race, or it has a very stubborn warm up for qualifying and steady deg in the race.

Well it’s not going to be easy because the Redbull was the fastest car during the race in Jeddah. Not by much, however I don’t want to ever exclude the prospect of Verstappen ever becoming legitimate favorite/ title threat this season.

And to your point, even if the W16 were on par with the MCL39…

(Which I truly believe the W16 will be faster than the MCL39 after Spain)

…Piastri is slowly becoming that WDC contending driver I always imagined he would be ever since he was signed by McLaren. So, I wouldn’t be very certain George would be easily champion.

[OverheatedTurbo]

Akkodis debrief dropped:

George was too aggressive in both stints, but the car also did not have the pace to keep with the front runners. So just this time SB15 was right.

[SB15]

Akkodis debrief dropped:

George was too aggressive in both stints, but the car also did not have the pace to keep with the front runners. So just this time SB15 was right.

Well honestly, I don't like being right because I really want George to be better and he's very capable of being top dawg if he just improve his tyre management and overall race pace. I didn't say it was bad, it's just this sport requires you to be the great in a lot of things that compared to a Button, Hamilton or Verstappen and I hope last weekend was a wake up call for him.

[ringo]

Russel is an opportunist. The team can say he was too aggressive but it's their responsibility to manage his pace over the radio and watch the tyres. Russel maybe decided to keep pushing because he wants to be close to take advantage of any opportunity. He has won when Max and a McLaren clash right.
Sitting back and saving tyres would have been safe, but not rewarding.

[F1Krof]

The W16 will never become faster than MCL.

Hindsight maybe, but they should've kept Elliot and stick to their original idea. Since the switch to hybrid W14B, they were always gonna be steps behind. Elliot was a capable engineer and knew what he was doing. They were 3rd best team in 2022 and 2nd best in 2023, this is when they were running their zero pod idea. Now they've gone from copying Red Bull -> to Aston Martin -> to Red Bull again.

[Space-heat]

(Which I truly believe the W16 will be faster than the MCL39 after Spain)

Is there no concern that Merc will be one of the harder hit teams by the TD in Spain? There FW seems, qualitatively, to be one of the more flexible.

[JPower]

(Which I truly believe the W16 will be faster than the MCL39 after Spain)

Is there no concern that Merc will be one of the harder hit teams by the TD in Spain? There FW seems, qualitatively, to be one of the more flexible.

Agreed. Don't understand the narrative that the McLaren is the most reliant on that technology.

[SB15]

(Which I truly believe the W16 will be faster than the MCL39 after Spain)

Is there no concern that Merc will be one of the harder hit teams by the TD in Spain? There FW seems, qualitatively, to be one of the more flexible.

Judging by how the front wing is designed initially, I don't think so

[SB15]

(Which I truly believe the W16 will be faster than the MCL39 after Spain)

Is there no concern that Merc will be one of the harder hit teams by the TD in Spain? There FW seems, qualitatively, to be one of the more flexible.

Agreed. Don't understand the narrative that the McLaren is the most reliant on that technology.

Well quite obviously they are, Ferrari seems the least reliant on the technology and Mercedes FW won't function no different from the RedBull's based on how it's designed after the TD is put in place.

[ringo]

The W16 will never become faster than MCL.

Hindsight maybe, but they should've kept Elliot and stick to their original idea. Since the switch to hybrid W14B, they were always gonna be steps behind. Elliot was a capable engineer and knew what he was doing. They were 3rd best team in 2022 and 2nd best in 2023, this is when they were running their zero pod idea. Now they've gone from copying Red Bull -> to Aston Martin -> to Red Bull again.

Elliot was blind to the floor and suspension requirements of the ground effect. But I think he was very advanced on the Zeropod concept.
With the knowledge the team has now on floor and suspension aero-kinematics, they should have dared to return to Zero pod on the new floor platform.
The issues in 2022 were truly based on lack of understanding of the floor. The most visual thing people saw were the engine cover and sidepods, but those were minor.
Floor profile, floor edge, and suspension design would have fixed W13.
Moving Elliot was not 100% bad. A technical director needs to consider everything, not just aero, and they need to be open to ideas and theories from all quarters inside the time. Elliot came across as being a little stubborn, based on media comments. I do not know the guy and could be wrong, but changes were not forthcoming for 2 years.

[SB15]

The W16 will never become faster than MCL.

Hindsight maybe, but they should've kept Elliot and stick to their original idea. Since the switch to hybrid W14B, they were always gonna be steps behind. Elliot was a capable engineer and knew what he was doing. They were 3rd best team in 2022 and 2nd best in 2023, this is when they were running their zero pod idea. Now they've gone from copying Red Bull -> to Aston Martin -> to Red Bull again.

Elliot was blind to the floor and suspension requirements of the ground effect. But I think he was very advanced on the Zeropod concept.
With the knowledge the team has now on floor and suspension aero-kinematics, they should have dared to return to Zero pod on the new floor platform.
The issues in 2022 were truly based on lack of understanding of the floor. The most visual thing people saw were the engine cover and sidepods, but those were minor.
Floor profile, floor edge, and suspension design would have fixed W13.
Moving Elliot was not 100% bad. A technical director needs to consider everything, not just aero, and they need to be open to ideas and theories from all quarters inside the time. Elliot came across as being a little stubborn, based on media comments. I do not know the guy and could be wrong, but changes were not forthcoming for 2 years.

Do you think Mercedes could bring the "Zero-pod" concept back since the new regs are based on inwash anyway?

If so, then that would mean the data wasn't lying to them to see how much downforce they would get and since Mercedes already used the concept, they are again far ahead in development with regulations with not just engines but also aero next year.

[JPower]

Is there no concern that Merc will be one of the harder hit teams by the TD in Spain? There FW seems, qualitatively, to be one of the more flexible.

Agreed. Don't understand the narrative that the McLaren is the most reliant on that technology.

Well quite obviously they are, Ferrari seems the least reliant on the technology and Mercedes FW won't function no different from the RedBull's based on how it's designed after the TD is put in place.

Based on what proof from this season?