Mercedes AMG F1 W04

[Darknight]

I find it very interesting that since new tires were introduced this race the mercs have gone back to the rear tire degradation of last year. Which might give room to speculate that pirelli brought back last years tire. Another thought is the temperature being higher which resulted in Merc losing performance and by the same token lotus being very fast. If I recall lotus were fast in Bahrain too. The only odd one out is redbull as that care seems to work in any temperature.

Call me a conspirircy theorist, but I have to say that the redbull secret is still hidden and has a high probability of still being there in 2014. I like Merc and they have always been my team, but redbull still is the team to beat.

[Huntresa]

I find it very interesting that since new tires were introduced this race the mercs have gone back to the rear tire degradation of last year. Which might give room to speculate that pirelli brought back last years tire. Another thought is the temperature being higher which resulted in Merc losing performance and by the same token lotus being very fast. If I recall lotus were fast in Bahrain too. The only odd one out is redbull as that care seems to work in any temperature.

Call me a conspirircy theorist, but I have to say that the redbull secret is still hidden and has a high probability of still being there in 2014. I like Merc and they have always been my team, but redbull still is the team to beat.

What we have is a car that has characteristics of burning the rear tires faster then some cars and today we had hotter weather then we have had the last 3 races and more so then on Silverstone, which is the only track of the last few we can compare to and that we had 100% proper thermal degradation of the tires today.

And they did kinda bring 2012 tires, i mean the rear tyres were Kevlar today with what i assume was 2013 rubber, but fronts were still this years construction.

But from Hungary the entire set will be 2012 construction and 2013 rubber. And what that means for Merc dunno rly, it doesnt rly look like they have gotten rid of their rear tyre heating issues.

[Cocles]

Since so much of what's going on with this car revolves around the tires, it kind of puts us in a holding pattern for three weeks until we can see what happens in Hungary with the new 2012/2013 hybrids.

And just to really throw gas on the fire, let's not forget how much the Merc's have disliked Hungary's track in the past.

Should be interesting. --Darn 3 week hiatus.

[Cocles]

I think this might have to do more with the changed tire profile not working well with the improvements they made for the previous tire profile

It's just a feeling, but that's what my gut is telling me as well.

[spiritone]

Interesting battle between hamilton and hulkenberg. Suprising that the merc could not put down the power as good as the sauber and to top it all off hamilton was on the rev limiter well before the end of the straightaway. Once again with his battle with vettel the red bull once again shows its excellent traction off corner.

Everyone seems to credit merc with the most horsepower but the stats don't always bear that out. Renault definately have the best all around engine.

[dans79]

An speculation in spanish press was that one of the reasons why mercedes has high degradation on tyres was because of the disc brakes that Hamilton imposed on mercedes, they overheat transfering that temperature to the tyres bringnning the temperature a bit higher and cousing degradation

Sounds like a bunch of bull from some spanish press that still can't get over 07.

Everyone seems to credit merc with the most horsepower but the stats don't always bear that out. Renault definately have the best all around engine.

I dout that's not far from the truth, though I think it has a lot more to do with Renault being allowed to update the engine several times, rather than their deign prowess.

I didn't see any real degradation issues today, it looked to me more like the change tires caught them out. My guess is that this is the complexity of the fric system coming into play. They got it really working well with the 2013 tires pre Silverstone, as their Silversone pace showed. I bet they will have to redo the suspension geometry again to deal with the new tire characteristics. Hopefully since the tires are going to be 2012 construction with 2013 compounds, it will only take a race or two to get the geometry right since they should have a ton of data on the 2012 tires.

[SectorOne]

it doesnt rly look like they have gotten rid of their rear tyre heating issues.

I think they actually managed to solve part of the problem. The problem for them was that once they did that, now they have to re-learn a tire again.

[Huntresa]

it doesnt rly look like they have gotten rid of their rear tyre heating issues.

I think they actually managed to solve part of the problem. The problem for them was that once they did that, now they have to re-learn a tire again.

Yeah perhaps but we dont rly know tho until Hungary cause this was a one off tire race since it was a blend of a little of everything + strict pressures etc.

Hopefully data from last year can be used for the 2012/2013 mix-match tires we will get from Hungary onwards.

[meves]

The new front wing is is designed to improve rear down force. I wonder if the increased track temperatures coupled with an increase in rear down force from the aero improvements has led the car to overheat the rear tyres again and hence they have increased rear tyre degradation. I wonder if they have accurate correlation between the tunnel and track but each of these updates comes with increased tyre temp which they can not simulate accurately and it will take them a race or 2 to make set-up changes to alleviate this temperature increase.

[Huntresa]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108668

[pmneo]

Can't imagine that the swapping of tyres could solve that poor performance with high load at the German GP.

Lewis switched to new Medium Tires after 6 laps with the soft Tyres: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/07/07/2 ... pit-stops/

Nico started with new Medium Tyres !?

[heimana]

mercedes will probably roll one day at Silverstone Pirelli tests to evaluate the tires

[aral]

Can't imagine that the swapping of tyres could solve that poor performance with high load at the German GP.

Lewis switched to new Medium Tires after 6 laps with the soft Tyres: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/07/07/2 ... pit-stops/

Nico started with new Medium Tyres !?

Because he wrecked them in qualifying.

[dans79]

Because he wrecked them in qualifying.

And Vettel switched one lap later, so it's not like they had atrocious tire wear.

[ismail1991]

mercedes will probably roll one day at Silverstone Pirelli tests to evaluate the tires

I think this is the way it should be. They were banned from young drivers test; however, if they don't use new tires before Hungarian Gp, they will have a big disadvantage. They should try new compounds at that young drivers test.