Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2015

[ringo]

Lauda's thoughts on Hamilton's driving this year:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/09/motor ... index.html

[Jordan44]

If you include qualifying then the fuel coupling for Hamilton in Hungary, brake failure in Germany too.

What was the source of Rosberg's car going AWOL in Abu Dhabi?

Overheating ERS is what I heard but the team didn't say anything officially. Lewis's epic start arguably saved him from being the victim and loosing the championship by running in cooler clean air.

[Jordan44]

Maybe I am showing my age but the above video with the overdramtic music played over a bunch of people sat at their computers (missing any real emotions when Nico goes out of Hamilton wins (if it was there I missed it) sums up everything wrong with F1. I want to see gladiators in wheel to wheel action. Not guys sat at their PC for over 2 hours straight!

The video was for those interested in what happens behind the scenes in order to make the races possible. It doesn't show what's wrong with F1 in anyway. They're there to take a job seriously, not enjoy the racing.

[sectionate]

If just showed people blankly, and with little emotion, staring at screens imo.

Maybe I am showing my age but the above video with the overdramtic music played over a bunch of people sat at their computers (missing any real emotions when Nico goes out of Hamilton wins (if it was there I missed it) sums up everything wrong with F1. I want to see gladiators in wheel to wheel action. Not guys sat at their PC for over 2 hours straight!

Jesus, what do you expect? They are thousands of miles away locked in a room doing their job. That job happens to be looking at data on a computer screen for god knows what, and to react if anything is out of line. Not to mention you are making a huge assumption that the video was actually taken at the exact moments things happened.

The problem with F1 is that a large section of the fan-base has attention deficit disorder, or rose tinted glasses on!

Some glimmer of emotion and relief maybe? They looked like robots, zero reaction when Rosberg went out, Hamilton winning. If that was Merc trying to look edgy, all they succeeded in doing was looking stuffy and boring

[PlatinumZealot]

Behind the scenes....

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 83016e9c4e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZK1V1G8b4I

NERDS!!

All of them!

[Drpesq]

Not sure if this comment should be in the car thread or team thread -

We all know that F1 teams engineer cars around the #1 driver. Nico's qualifying in 2014 was very impressive. Although Hamilton outscored him in 2013 by a bit, it seems that the W06 is an ideal fit for Hamilton.

I don't dislike Lewis, and he a deserving champion in my opinion, but I do feel for Nico. On raw talent I don't think he's that far behind Lewis, but in F1 as we've seen before, as amongst the fastest 2-3 teams, the car in front stays in front absent an error. a faster driver won't necessarily be able to pass.

Put it this way, If Lewis were made to start one position behind Nico at every round, I don't think it certain that he would have passed Nico.

How much of that is down to the design of the car? Ferrari designed their car for Alonso, RB for Vettel etc... Clearly this Merc is for Hamilton. But I've never read any commentary about it? Can anyone comment on any engineering tailored to Lewis?

Cheers,
DRP

[mrluke]

I think its worth pointing out that Ham uses the brakes for his laptime much more than the other drivers do and 2014 with the switch to brake by wire had an impact upon his 1 lap pace, evidence being the weird snap spins he suffered from on multiple occasions. We also know from the other teams that getting the BBW to work properly was one of the bigger challenges of the 2014 pu regs.

I think that fact that the 2015 car has 2nd gen bbw systems has allowed Ham to leverage the brakes again. But also I think that the fight has gone out of Nico a little bit this year due the way the championship has evolved. Ham quickly established an early lead that Nico never really looked like closing whereas last year Nico was in a much stronger position for the WDC and believed that he would be able to win. This year not so much.

[holeindalip]

Hamilton's pace has been much better since merc figured out the mounting issues for the brembos

[SiLo]

Hamilton's pace has been much better since merc figured out the mounting issues for the brembos

On Sundays he has generally been faster. Even when it looks like Rosberg has the pace. The few times we may have seen them race Rosberg has either had an issue or made a mistake...

[Phil]

We all know that F1 teams engineer cars around the #1 driver. Nico's qualifying in 2014 was very impressive. Although Hamilton outscored him in 2013 by a bit, it seems that the W06 is an ideal fit for Hamilton.

We do? How do we/you design a car around an actual driver? Especially if both drivers are relatively similar in their preference? The preference, I assume in either being a neutral handling car opposed to one that perhaps is a bit more understeer or oversteer/snappier? And how much could that not be influenced by set-up anyway?

From my view, I think the engineers and actual design into a car is with the highest priority in making a 'fast' car - or the fastest car within their ability. The qualities of a race-car are well established and I'm not sure how you could conceive a car to be better suited for one driver that isn't compromising to the overall goal of achieving maximum performance. I'd say what benefits one driver usually benefits the other too, unless you get into some weird unique preference that makes no sense from a performance stand point.

[PlatinumZealot]

I agree with Phil. The engineers job is to make the fastest car. If that means listening to the driver's input to make the car driver package faster than so be it. Much of the time, a driver's input can correct problems in a cars handling and then another driver comes along and out paces the driver who had the input into the car. Such is the case of Vettel outperforming Kimi in a car designed with Kimi's input. For Nico and Lewis there is no such argument because both drivers have proclaimed numerous times that the car is "perfect" for them.

[dans79]

Personally, I think Nico is better as thinking performance out of the car with his engineers, while Lewis is more seat of your pants. Lewis seems more comfortable dealing with a car that's got a lot of over-steer. Imo, Lewis pulled well clear of Nico when FRIC was removed from the car.

[basti313]

Personally, I think Nico is better as thinking performance out of the car with his engineers, while Lewis is more seat of your pants. Lewis seems more comfortable dealing with a car that's got a lot of over-steer. Imo, Lewis pulled well clear of Nico when FRIC was removed from the car.

I do not think your conclusion is valid. Yes, Lewis is much better than Nico since FRIC is removed, but there is basically not that general influence on the balance.
I would, like the posters before, put my bet on breaking. Lewis is just making more laptime on the brakes, whereas Nico is better on the exit of the corners. But using the exit for the laptime kills Nicos rear tires. If we look back on the on-track battles this year, Nico was always running out of rear tires.
So I rather see the influence of the missing FRIC system on how the car uses its rear tires at the exit of a corner. Due to the missing balancing mechanism it is just using one tire more in each corner. Together with the driving style of Nico this is a problem.

[dans79]

I do not think your conclusion is valid. Yes, Lewis is much better than Nico since FRIC is removed, but there is basically not that general influence on the balance.
I would, like the posters before, put my bet on breaking. Lewis is just making more laptime on the brakes,

Lewis's biggest gripe when he first came to Mercedes, was that FRIC made the car handle differently under breaking.

http://en.espn.co.uk/mercedes/motorspor ... 23395.html

[mrluke]

I do not think your conclusion is valid. Yes, Lewis is much better than Nico since FRIC is removed, but there is basically not that general influence on the balance.
I would, like the posters before, put my bet on breaking. Lewis is just making more laptime on the brakes,

Lewis's biggest gripe when he first came to Mercedes, was that FRIC made the car handle differently under breaking.

http://en.espn.co.uk/mercedes/motorspor ... 23395.html

Correct.

But it is one thing to say that getting used to having an advanced fric system slowed ham up, and another thing to say that Hamilton would always be slower than nico with a fric system.

I think its very difficult to decide either way due to the short data set, but I would state that typically Hamiltons strength is being able to adapt very well to the car, even when it is not working as intended.