2021 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, July 16 - 18

[qatmix]

Interesting first (and only) practice. Even if the Mercs are sandbagging, I cannot believe they are going to make up for the seven tenths they are behind.

Really pleased to see Lando up there, poor guy has been through a lot, so this will hopefully help him put some of that behind him. So far he is my driver of the season.

[Ryar]

Mercedes struggling makes me afraid about 2022... looks like they stopped developing this car long ago, much sooner than any other.

Some dominating team kept dominating after a huge rule change in F1 previously?

Mercedes ironically 2016-2017

Courtesy of a PU that was so far ahead, with oil burning trick that no one else figured out until late 2017.

[Marty_Y]

That had to be an engine mode/fuel situation for Merc. No other explanation. Still may not be enough, but the gaps can’t be that massive.

Hate to be so pessimistic so early but I think the gap is genuine, Lewis will be lucky to qualify P4 imo.

Hope I'm wrong!

[djones]

Mercedes struggling makes me afraid about 2022... looks like they stopped developing this car long ago, much sooner than any other.

Some dominating team kept dominating after a huge rule change in F1 previously?

Mercedes ironically 2016-2017

Courtesy of a PU that was so far ahead, with oil burning trick that no one else figured out until late 2017.

Literally never proven that they burned oil. Ferrari were the only team found with an extra oil tank.

Also, when they lowered the allowance of oil usage Mercedes actually came away stronger. Monza I think it was.

[Just_a_fan]

That had to be an engine mode/fuel situation for Merc. No other explanation. Still may not be enough, but the gaps can’t be that massive.

Hate to be so pessimistic so early but I think the gap is genuine, Lewis will be lucky to qualify P4 imo.

Hope I'm wrong!

The rear floor rule change has massively hampered Mercedes. It's given the championship to Red Bull.

I think Mercedes knew that in the winter even though they were making the "no one knows who's going to be affected" noises. That's why they didn't do much with the car. The rules basically screw a low rake car. And no one can turn a low rake car in to a high rake one in a few weeks, especially when there is a huge regulation change coming up too.

[nzjrs]

I was at Goodwood on the Friday, I cant say they were very particular at the gate I went in, all I did was hold my phone up with the covid pass, they didn't ask for ID or scan the QR code, pretty lax to be honest.

Agree, i wondered why they didn't use the QR code. Although tbf the whole lateral flow test is an honour system anyway (for those rewarding: you have to enter the result into the govt website yourself)

[pantherxxx]

Interesting first (and only) practice. Even if the Mercs are sandbagging, I cannot believe they are going to make up for the seven tenths they are behind.

Really pleased to see Lando up there, poor guy has been through a lot, so this will hopefully help him put some of that behind him. So far he is my driver of the season.

They have just one practice to test the updates and no more practice before qualifying. Why on earth would they be sandbagging?

[Sevach]

Mercedes ironically 2016-2017

Courtesy of a PU that was so far ahead, with oil burning trick that no one else figured out until late 2017.

Literally never proven that they burned oil. Ferrari were the only team found with an extra oil tank.

Also, when they lowered the allowance of oil usage Mercedes actually came away stronger. Monza I think it was.

Mercedes introduced their final engine way earlier than anyone would consider and therefore wasn't subject to this rule(at least in 2017).

[GOAT]

So, what’ the verdict after seeing- what has been seen, cannot be unseen.

[darkpino]

Mercedes ironically 2016-2017

Courtesy of a PU that was so far ahead, with oil burning trick that no one else figured out until late 2017.

Literally never proven that they burned oil. Ferrari were the only team found with an extra oil tank.

Also, when they lowered the allowance of oil usage Mercedes actually came away stronger. Monza I think it was.

If I’m not mistaken they changed several engines so they didn’t had to follow those rules for the 2017 season

[atanatizante]

https://twitter.com/wearetherace/status ... 66596?s=21

Both HAM and BOT were running in low 1.30`, with the former a couple of tenths faster
VER was doing a 5 stint on softs doing high 1.32` and PER did a 5 stint on hard tyres doing middle 1.33`

Seems to me that Merc was doing most of their work for the Sunday race setup ...

[dans79]

https://twitter.com/wearetherace/status ... 66596?s=21

Both HAM and BOT were running in low 1.30`, with the former a couple of tenths faster
VER was doing a 5 stint on softs doing high 1.32` and PER did a 5 stint on hard tyres doing middle 1.33`

Seems to me that Merc was doing most of their work for the Sunday race setup ...

That's what it looked like to me as well. The soft runs looked like they were just trying to figure out a soft set-up, and might have had extra fuel onboard.

[politburo]

That had to be an engine mode/fuel situation for Merc. No other explanation. Still may not be enough, but the gaps can’t be that massive.

Hate to be so pessimistic so early but I think the gap is genuine, Lewis will be lucky to qualify P4 imo.

Hope I'm wrong!

The last time Mercedes took a pole position was in Spain, the 4th race, we are now at race 10. And on a 64 second lap in Austria they were 2 tenths behind Verstappen, that's nearly 0.3% which is quite a sizeable gap. Perhaps P4 is pessimistic rather, they will be fighting with Norris and Perez again for the 2nd fastest qualifier. P1 in has almost become a formality for Verstappen bar a red flag or something along those lines.

[WaikeCU]

Feel like the Merc's haven't turned up the engine



Or is it just me...?

[dans79]

I just watched Lewis onboard footage from the lap where he was told his position an gap to Max.

Liberty intentionally cut out the fact that Lewis was told "so we just stay in this standard pu mode" before he asked about the gap.

The also left out that he was very calmly told turns 9,12,13, mid 15, after he asked about the gap.

Then Lewis asked a really odd question about adding pressure., and was told they could.