Restomaniac wrote: ↑01 Sep 2017, 10:18
Ted Kravitz has just said that Mercedes have decided to voluntarily decided to stick to the new 0.9l even though they can go to 1.2l as they are on engines pre Monza. They also ran to 0.9l in Spa when Ferrari were at 1.2l.
That cannot be right surely as that means they gave up an advantage and were STILL faster than Ferrari. At least I hope for Ferrari's sake it's not true.
AMuS reported this all along. Didn't quite believe it myself, but seems to be true. I somehow expect Mercedes to be dominant in Monza. There are a couple of reasons that worked against them in Spa I feel.
1.) They traded-off lap time for straight line speed. According to Toto, this cost them 2 tenths in lap time.
2.) IMO Mercedes was limited by tire performance. The car optimally worked on the softs - the US was probably too sensitive for their car over the entire long lap and loads even though Pirelli mandated quite high pressures which usually suit Mercedes
3.) I don't think Ferrari could have driven much faster in clean air than what Hamilton set. Mercedes were a bit in a pickle - they needed to pit first to avoid the undercut which made them more vulnerable for a 1-stop on the softs. So they needed the right pace to make it to the end, but quick enough not to let Vettel into DRS.
I think Monza will suit them better, given it's SS, S and M territory.