Pyrone89 wrote: ↑04 Aug 2019, 23:06
zibby43 wrote: ↑04 Aug 2019, 22:21
I think that the limited running in practice the past few weekends has hampered Merc's ability to fine-tune their massive update, particularly when it comes to qualifying. Which makes sense. It took almost the entirety of the second week of Barcelona testing (that's a lot of running) for Merc to optimize the "B-spec" car.
Consequently, I think Merc have erred on the side of caution when setting up the car, skewing the balance toward race pace and tire life. Of course, the development race will continue, but after the summer break, I expect that Merc will begin to claw all of the expected gains out of the added downforce.
Matthew Somerfield (@SomersF1) does a good job at explaining how massive the update was - from font to back (also explains the reasoning behind each change). Great podcast for those that may have missed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs9Up2oRN2o
Not gonna lie, if they manage to get even more pace F1 is in trouble. This car has 10 out of 12 victories so far making it the most succesful car in 31 years (McLaren 1988)
They definitely need to unlock the upgrade's potential in qualifying trim to keep up with Verstappen's Red Bull. And for Spa and Monza, I'm curious to see if Merc will finally run their skinny, low-downforce rear wing that featured serrations on the trailing edge of the maineplane. That RW was only tested in Baku and never appeared in qualifying.
On a side note, the '16 W07 was more successful. 11 of 12 wins to start the season (only loss was the Spanish GP, where Rosberg and Hamilton collided). The W07 went on to win 19 of the 21 races that season. The only other loss was Malaysia, where Hamilton retired from the lead. That car was truly dominant. But, this second part of the discussion belongs in the team thread.
On an
on-topic note . . . Red Bull engineers calculated that Merc were 0.3s/lap faster than Red Bull in the race. That's pretty amazing on a circuit like the Hungaroring.
https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... garn-2019/