[ 2020 ] AMG Mercedes F1 Team - Mercedes

[izzy]

On another note, I think Ferrari should eye the situation closely and if their car turns out to be significantly behind, they should just be honest to themselves, be clever, let Mercedes and RBR fight and turn their focus on 2021.

i think Ferrari need to work out how Mercedes is working better as a team, first of all. i mean they both have the same resources, they both had last year to learn from, they both attract the cleverest engineers etc etc.

so if the cars have turned out one better than the other, it's a process and culture thing and Ferrari have to work that out. If they just roll into the next car with the same structures and all that, how can they expect the result to be different?

cos one thing about the Mercedes team is this aura of positivity and togetherness, that Ross Brawn started and Toto's continued, with James as well, that seems to make everybody work at their best and all the departments cooperate and communicate well, and have ideas that get welcomed and developed. And Mattia seems to be the same positive kind of person, and seriously clever, so he has to be working on it, and part of it will be trying to have a good year this year too, with good development, no blame, and lots of motivation

[bosyber]

Well put, that seems like the main thing to do for the Ferrari organization

[LM10]

On another note, I think Ferrari should eye the situation closely and if their car turns out to be significantly behind, they should just be honest to themselves, be clever, let Mercedes and RBR fight and turn their focus on 2021.

i think Ferrari need to work out how Mercedes is working better as a team, first of all. i mean they both have the same resources, they both had last year to learn from, they both attract the cleverest engineers etc etc.

so if the cars have turned out one better than the other, it's a process and culture thing and Ferrari have to work that out. If they just roll into the next car with the same structures and all that, how can they expect the result to be different?

cos one thing about the Mercedes team is this aura of positivity and togetherness, that Ross Brawn started and Toto's continued, with James as well, that seems to make everybody work at their best and all the departments cooperate and communicate well, and have ideas that get welcomed and developed. And Mattia seems to be the same positive kind of person, and seriously clever, so he has to be working on it, and part of it will be trying to have a good year this year too, with good development, no blame, and lots of motivation

As you told, Mattia definitely seems to be positive for the whole team. Since last year there is a positivity in the team and going into this season, the team, which is quite young yet, has stayed unchanged. This can only be helpful for the future.
As for the performance differences of the cars of both teams, it must be said that the damage had already been done in the development process of the PU for 2014 (kudos for that). Mercedes had 80 hp more than Ferrari and the difference was impossible to be closed in a short period of time. The big PU advantage was the biggest factor among those which lead to a immensely stable team. If you win both championships by walking and others are sprinting to dead, everything around gets simpler. You can develop and concentrate on innovations before others, you can work on reliability and you know you already have a working package so no need to go all in and risk failures. Your confidence level increases and you get even more stable as a team.
Ferrari has done a very goob job with their car in 2017 for example and I think that it was the best package on the grid, excluding the PU. In my opinion it was the PU which gave Mercedes the edge eventually. And of course reliability and overall team management too, but that's what they have built up over years, like mentioned above already.

It will be crucial for Ferrari to hold and work on what they have now. They need stability, clear minds and focus more than ever. Don't let Mercedes have a head start in 2021 again.

[LM10]

Ferrari has been so ridiculously stupid to let go of people like Aldo Costa and James Allison, aren't they? These two have been leading figures in the success of Mercedes, which just proves that, the working culture matters the most for generating success out of talented people.

It surely was not wise to let them go and Mercedes was very clever to hire them. Don't know about Aldo Costa's contribution (other than bringing secrets of Ferrari PU with him), but James Allison was a big win for Mercedes it seems.
Hopefully Mattia will change dynamics and prevent such things to happen in the future.

[Avocado]

On another note, I think Ferrari should eye the situation closely and if their car turns out to be significantly behind, they should just be honest to themselves, be clever, let Mercedes and RBR fight and turn their focus on 2021.

Mercedes and RBR are doing the same, don't fool yourself. They will be more than ready for 2021.

[Pyrone89]

I am looking forward to people somehow arguing it still isn't about the dominant car performance but on drivers skill when they get the titles again this year, for a 7th year in a row.

Looking forward to examples of drivers in bad cars, or even just second/third best cars winning titles.

Schumacher, Alonso, and then we go back to 80’s and before

[LM10]

On another note, I think Ferrari should eye the situation closely and if their car turns out to be significantly behind, they should just be honest to themselves, be clever, let Mercedes and RBR fight and turn their focus on 2021.

Mercedes and RBR are doing the same, don't fool yourself. They will be more than ready for 2021.

They work in both projects at the same time right now, but the way of how the season progresses will make them decide when to entirely switch ressources to 2021 project. If Ferrari thinks they have no chance of closing the gap, they should totally focus on 2021. If Mercedes and RBR are close to each other, they will fight on both fronts. It's a difference. I'm not fooling myself.

[PlatinumZealot]

Ferrari has been so ridiculously stupid to let go of people like Aldo Costa and James Allison, aren't they? These two have been leading figures in the success of Mercedes, which just proves that, the working culture matters the most for generating success out of talented people.

It surely was not wise to let them go and Mercedes was very clever to hire them. Don't know about Aldo Costa's contribution (other than bringing secrets of Ferrari PU with him), but James Allison was a big win for Mercedes it seems.
Hopefully Mattia will change dynamics and prevent such things to happen in the future.

Aldo was "the man" on the whole "system" of the cars mechanicals. The chassis suspension steering etc. He is a little shy to cameras but he has always been hailed even when he was at Ferrari. Biggest loss to them. He took some schitck because the cars couldnt match the RedBulls but Ross knew his quality and brought him over.

[LM10]

Ferrari has been so ridiculously stupid to let go of people like Aldo Costa and James Allison, aren't they? These two have been leading figures in the success of Mercedes, which just proves that, the working culture matters the most for generating success out of talented people.

It surely was not wise to let them go and Mercedes was very clever to hire them. Don't know about Aldo Costa's contribution (other than bringing secrets of Ferrari PU with him), but James Allison was a big win for Mercedes it seems.
Hopefully Mattia will change dynamics and prevent such things to happen in the future.

Aldo was "the man" on the whole "system" of the cars mechanicals. The chassis suspension steering etc. He is a little shy to cameras but he has always been hailed even when he was at Ferrari. Biggest loss to them. He took some schitck because the cars couldnt match the RedBulls but Ross knew his quality and brought him over.

Oh, I confused him with Lorenzo Sassi.

[izzy]

As you told, Mattia definitely seems to be positive for the whole team. Since last year there is a positivity in the team and going into this season, the team, which is quite young yet, has stayed unchanged. This can only be helpful for the future.
As for the performance differences of the cars of both teams, it must be said that the damage had already been done in the development process of the PU for 2014 (kudos for that). Mercedes had 80 hp more than Ferrari and the difference was impossible to be closed in a short period of time. The big PU advantage was the biggest factor among those which lead to a immensely stable team. If you win both championships by walking and others are sprinting to dead, everything around gets simpler. You can develop and concentrate on innovations before others, you can work on reliability and you know you already have a working package so no need to go all in and risk failures. Your confidence level increases and you get even more stable as a team.
Ferrari has done a very goob job with their car in 2017 for example and I think that it was the best package on the grid, excluding the PU. In my opinion it was the PU which gave Mercedes the edge eventually. And of course reliability and overall team management too, but that's what they have built up over years, like mentioned above already.

It will be crucial for Ferrari to hold and work on what they have now. They need stability, clear minds and focus more than ever. Don't let Mercedes have a head start in 2021 again.

i thought the difference in 2017 and 18 was the driving, more than anything, the cars were about equal and it was Lewis vs Seb, and Seb dropped 80 points each year. And Ferrari had caught up with the power. And even last year the Mercedes car was often not really faster, the Ferrari setup didn't happen some weekends, or strategy, while Mercedes and Lewis were consistent and of course Charles is young

So if the car has fallen behind now, not sure tbh but Mattia seems to accept it, something has gone wrong and first thing i'd have thought is to refer to the team as a team, compare with the golden team of the moment, and make sure whatever that is doesn't stay wrong for 2021. And one thing as @GPR-A and @PlatinumZ have been saying is having brilliant people in the right roles not the wrong ones. Ferrari's speciality used to be promoting people until they found a job they were bad at! Then Mercedes has made a speciality out of taking them and letting them just rock on with their engineering, i guess being free like Lewis perhaps, including Lorenzo Sassi i keep waiting to hear but this engine is looking alright

[LM10]

i thought the difference in 2017 and 18 was the driving, more than anything, the cars were about equal and it was Lewis vs Seb, and Seb dropped 80 points each year. And Ferrari had caught up with the power. And even last year the Mercedes car was often not really faster, the Ferrari setup didn't happen some weekends, or strategy, while Mercedes and Lewis were consistent and of course Charles is young

In 2017 Ferrari definitely had not caught up with the power yet. Mercedes destroyed Ferrari on the straights. Remember Spa 2017 for example. It's much harder to start in second row and drive behind the most powerful car rather than to start up front.
I agree that driving was a factor too, but the reason for Lewis to drive flawlessly also lies in Mercedes being such a rock-stable team (I'm not ignoring his general monster skills). He can totally trust his team and doesn't feel the need to overdrive in any means. Vettel, for example, told that he tried to overdrive multiple times last season and that it was a mistake.
As for Mercedes occasionally not being faster last season - they maybe weren't in qualifying, but they absolutely killed it in the races when it mattered.

[dren]

Good management puts the right people in the right places and in an environment/culture for them to succeed. Ferrari has quite a bit of pressure from the top for the racing side to win. When that isn't buffered by the TP, it filters down into the team. James Allen used to share that opinion on his blog before he sold it.

[LM10]

Mercedes used DAS in the pits as well. PG tech suggests that it's to put temperature into the tyres. That would be a nice to have of course, as cold tyres after a pit stop are an issue. But wasn't this system supposed to cool the tyres rather than warming them?

Another visible thing is that he presses a button when pulling and pushing the steering wheel without "MARKER" appearing on the screen. So this answers the question wether a button needs to be pressed or not. The steering wheel needs to be unlocked by pressing it, it seems.

[F1NAC]

Mercedes used DAS in the pits as well. PG tech suggests that it's to put temperature into the tyres. That would be a nice to have of course, as cold tyres after a pit stop are an issue. But wasn't this system supposed to cool the tyres rather than warming them?

Another visible thing is that he presses a button when pulling and pushing the steering wheel without "MARKER" appearing on the screen. So this answers the question wether a button needs to be pressed or not. The steering wheel needs to be unlocked by pressing it, it seems.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1230927901832466432

The system is intended to keep the heat in the tyres rather than cooling them.

[izzy]

In 2017 Ferrari definitely had not caught up with the power yet. Mercedes destroyed Ferrari on the straights. Remember Spa 2017 for example. It's much harder to start in second row and drive behind the most powerful car rather than to start up front.
I agree that driving was a factor too, but the reason for Lewis to drive flawlessly also lies in Mercedes being such a rock-stable team (I'm not ignoring his general monster skills). He can totally trust his team and doesn't feel the need to overdrive in any means. Vettel, for example, told that he tried to overdrive multiple times last season and that it was a mistake.
As for Mercedes occasionally not being faster last season - they maybe weren't in qualifying, but they absolutely killed it in the races when it mattered.

i thought Ferrari more or less caught up on power by 2015, as soon as they went to a big turbo. Ferrari have always been good at engines. Anyway last year there were quite a few races that Ferrari lost just with incidents, like Bahrain, Canada, Mexico. So yes they needed more front load, which they did add. Mercedes ran the race team better, more than anything, and Seb, well yes his team wasn't as there for him for sure, but part of that was they took on a young rival instead of a wingman, because of all Seb's mistakes the years before. But in general i do think the car was fast, just hard to set up and Charles was relatively young and new

So now, anyway, if I were in charge i wouldn't give up on this year i'd be trying to get the human and social aspects of the team to be as good as Mercedes so they can work for the 2021 car. and i think those are pretty good at Red Bull as well. it's a new layer of F1 that's become more obvious recently, and of course why Lewis really wants Toto to stay, as the culture comes from the top