2017 AMG Mercedes F1 Team - Mercedes

[Phil]

So how is DRS operated?

Is it - 1.) press button and DRS, within the DRS designated area, will open for as long as you have the button pressed or is it 2.) press to open and press again to close (or going onto the brakes)?

The quote above, although obviously translated from English to German by AMuS, clearly states "DRS did not work" - not "I forgot to open DRS" or "I made a mistake and pressed DRS too early". I agree no big deal was made out of it, because the loss was minimal, but I also sense that no one [Hamilton] included didn't want to take anything away from Valteri in the aftermath of QF. It was a job well done by him, no matter what issue Hamilton might have had. The gap was that small. Perhaps this was the reason no "big deal" was made out of it and only AMuS picked up on it and asked Hamilton post QF.

I also noticed that on the podium of Bahrain, Lewis seemed to be very comforting to Valteri. Valteri looked very beaten there and there is at least one instance where Lewis puts a hand on his shoulder. I might be able to get a screen grab of it later.

[ab_f1]

Are we seeing a change in Ham style about trying to avoid blaming team? I guess with Nico gone, he wants to make a fresh start with team as well?

[Juzh]

So how is DRS operated?

Is it - 1.) press button and DRS, within the DRS designated area, will open for as long as you have the button pressed or is it 2.) press to open and press again to close (or going onto the brakes)?

Within drs zone:
press button once (can't be held down or act as an auto switch) - drs opens
press same button again - drs closes
step on the brakes - drs closes

[WaikeCU]

I think it used to be a beep noise through the ears of the driver when DRS can be enabled. Don't know if it's the same nowadays.

[shady]

He wouldnt have opened it early, there is a beep in their ear when they cross over the DRS line.

Just like the clutch
Just like the error modes on the PUs.

[SR71]

Well, I have to say if it the DRS was a technical or team error I'm happy HAM has turned a new page in life and stopped blaming and accusations.

I'm a fan of change and he seems little more laid back this year - he has an edge with reports still but I can't blame him, those guys are monsters/idiots. Intra-team comments he's made however would do any team principal proud this year.

Maybe this "talk" he had with Toto was what both sides needed.

[Chene_Mostert]

He wouldnt have opened it early, there is a beep in their ear when they cross over the DRS line.

Just like the clutch
Just like the error modes on the PUs.

Maybe he heard a beep that wasn't there, or maybe it wasn't a beep but a tweet, or a squeak or a peep.

[PlatinumZealot]

Hamilton did an interview after race-day and he simply said it didn't open. Bottas was very lucky.

[WaikeCU]

Hamilton did an interview after race-day and he simply said it didn't open. Bottas was very lucky.

What I made of that is:

• It just proves how much quicker Lewis actually would be if he would have had DRS activated during his lap at that section. Valtteri was only less than .050s faster than Lewis' time.

• That would mean, Merc's pace running in clean air is mighty compared to the Ferrari. If Lewis managed to be 2nd without DRS activated at that part of the circuit and be more than .4s faster than Seb's time in 3rd. Imagine if DRS was active on Lewis' car.

• So, the Merc is the real deal in Quali compared with the Ferrari.

• Which pretty much proves how quickly Lewis was catching Seb towards the end of the race. On low fuel load, on fresher tires and a monster of a car under his butt. He was catching Seb with big strives.

• Question mark remains on the performance of that Merc on heavy fuel load / beginning of the race. I think the Ferrari has a similar pace at that point.

[dans79]

Question mark remains on the performance of that Merc on heavy fuel load / beginning of the race. I think the Ferrari has a similar pace at that point.

I think Merc will improve now that they have done some testing (97 laps) in what can be considered the hottest condition they will face this year.

[OO7]

Hamilton did an interview after race-day and he simply said it didn't open. Bottas was very lucky.

What I made of that is:

• It just proves how much quicker Lewis actually would be if he would have had DRS activated during his lap at that section. Valtteri was only less than .050s faster than Lewis' time.

• That would mean, Merc's pace running in clean air is mighty compared to the Ferrari. If Lewis managed to be 2nd without DRS activated at that part of the circuit and be more than .4s faster than Seb's time in 3rd. Imagine if DRS was active on Lewis' car.

• So, the Merc is the real deal in Quali compared with the Ferrari.

• Which pretty much proves how quickly Lewis was catching Seb towards the end of the race. On low fuel load, on fresher tires and a monster of a car under his butt. He was catching Seb with big strives.

• Question mark remains on the performance of that Merc on heavy fuel load / beginning of the race. I think the Ferrari has a similar pace at that point.

Hamilton's DRS failed to open on his second run, where he was 0.239secs off Bottas. He stated that he lost 2 tenths in the first DRS zone and 1 tenth in the last, so it still would have been close.

[Restomaniac]

Question mark remains on the performance of that Merc on heavy fuel load / beginning of the race. I think the Ferrari has a similar pace at that point.

I think Merc will improve now that they have done some testing (97 laps) in what can be considered the hottest condition they will face this year.

There is that. Also it's clear they have gone in the wrong direction on bits so I imagine upgrades will be coming soon.

In fact knowing the sheer amount of money they use can anyone see their wheelbase shortening if it's clear they got it wrong on drivability?

[basti313]

.....
The quote above, although obviously translated from English to German by AMuS, clearly states "DRS did not work" - not "I forgot to open DRS" or "I made a mistake and pressed DRS too early". I agree no big deal was made out of it, because the loss was minimal, but I also sense that no one [Hamilton] included didn't want to take anything away from Valteri in the aftermath of QF. It was a job well done by him, no matter what issue Hamilton might have had. The gap was that small. Perhaps this was the reason no "big deal" was made out of it and only AMuS picked up on it and asked Hamilton post QF.

Well, the wing was working before and was working afterwards without any issues. If there would have been any sign of technical failure, they would have replaced it completely after Q. This tells me, that there was no technical problem. But you are right, there is not much need to discuss this small thing.

I also noticed that on the podium of Bahrain, Lewis seemed to be very comforting to Valteri. Valteri looked very beaten there and there is at least one instance where Lewis puts a hand on his shoulder. I might be able to get a screen grab of it later.

Yes, the atmosphere is much better than between Ros and Ham at the end. On the other hand: It was also good between Ros and Ham when they were not fighting for wins.

[basti313]

What I made of that is:

• It just proves how much quicker Lewis actually would be if he would have had DRS activated during his lap at that section. Valtteri was only less than .050s faster than Lewis' time.

Well, he also made an error in the last sector. I think we will see the normal 0.2 to 0.3 sec between Ham and Bot throughout the season if everything runs fine. Here Bot had an excellent last Q3 run, the track evolved and Ham bottled it...no big deal, business as usual.

• That would mean, Merc's pace running in clean air is mighty compared to the Ferrari. If Lewis managed to be 2nd without DRS activated at that part of the circuit and be more than .4s faster than Seb's time in 3rd. Imagine if DRS was active on Lewis' car.

Well, the time of the second Q3 run was only a bit faster than Vet. To me it looks like both cars are quite equal, 0.1sec up and down depending on the track. The game changer is the Q engine mode, which gives Merc half a second advantage on an engine track like this.

• So, the Merc is the real deal in Quali compared with the Ferrari.

Easy with 0.5 sec just from the engine.

• Which pretty much proves how quickly Lewis was catching Seb towards the end of the race. On low fuel load, on fresher tires and a monster of a car under his butt. He was catching Seb with big strives.

The big amount of the catching was down to the engine mode. When catching Bot, Ham was using his most powerful mode for something like 8 laps. You could see it nicely in his S1 times, which were half a second to a second faster then the S1 times from Vet and Bot. This sector time is just down on engine power. On the other hand in S3 they were nearly similar and S2 had another second due to new tires and back straight.
Once they were past Bot, the S1 time came to normal in comparison to Vet and Bot.

• Question mark remains on the performance of that Merc on heavy fuel load / beginning of the race. I think the Ferrari has a similar pace at that point.

I think it is purely down on engine modes. This engine has not much on its back (turned down long time in Oz and China), so they could run it a bit harder and burn some oil.

[Phil]

Well, the wing was working before and was working afterwards without any issues. If there would have been any sign of technical failure, they would have replaced it completely after Q. This tells me, that there was no technical problem. But you are right, there is not much need to discuss this small thing.

IMO, I have seen DRS fail too many times (~<10) on various different cars on various different occasions through the seasons since its introduction to simply put it down to driver error. I also don't think it's a technical error in that sense. More like that the sensor and transmission process isn't bullet proof that transmits when a car goes over the line of the designated DRS zone?

How is it done? Have they got a sensor at the track? Is it done by GPS? How is the signal transmitted to the car to unlock the DRS function? How accurate is the system? Is the potential error rate always the same, e.g. when just one car passes through it or multiple cars?

Obviously, it is fairly accurate, as 20 cars across 3 qualifying sessions across 20 races (20 Q1, 16 Q2, 10 Q3 = 46 cars per qualifying session). Lets assume most cars do at least 2 runs and we get roughly 100 hot laps per qualifying session. Multiplied by 20 races. So we have roughly about 2000 hot laps per season. One single documented failure would still yield a quite impressive 0.05% error rate. This is just for qualifying mind you.

I'm not trying to find excuses for why Hamilton didn't get pole, so I'll just state again that even with a working DRS, it probably would have been a very very close call between the two. I am just trying to understand better how DRS works in a technical sense and what the reasons could be for why sometimes we see cars during races where DRS does not open. It certainly doesn't strike me as completely error-free.