This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
When do the teams have to tell the FIA what parts are going to use tokens on?
Each day, Mercedes has spent an extra hour preparing for the afternoon session, and that seems really odd. I'm starting to wonder if they are switching parts out over the lunch break.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team wraps up 2021 pre-season testing with140 laps on the final day at the Bahrain International Circuit.
A solid day for the Mercedes AMG-Petronas F1 Team saw the W12 E Performance manage 750km of running to conclude pre-season testing in Sakhir, with Valtteri and Lewis sharing driving duties.
• Valtteri took to the track this morning under clear blue skies, putting together 86 laps of long run set-up work and general balance learning.
• Lewis jumped in the cockpit for the afternoon session completing a mix of long-run and qualifying work over 54 laps.
• The team covered 304 laps over the three-day test.
• Mercedes-Benz Power Units completed a total of 3,063km today.
Valtteri Bottas
Day one was compromised for me so I’m pleased the past two days have been efficient and clean. Today, like yesterday, we had plenty of laps and ran good quality tests. I’m still not entirely comfortable but we’ve been moving forward and getting better. There’s still more work to do; we’ve collected lots of data over these past few days which we will analyse to help us make the car faster ahead of the first race.
Time is even more limited now with the recent changes but our recovery from the first day has been very good. I absolutely believe that the car and team has the potential to fight for the title. I don’t think the package is quite there yet in terms of performance but I have no doubt it will be. I feel like I’ve had enough time in the car, performing short runs and long runs, and I really feel comfortable and confident. From my side I’m ready and as a team, we will be ready.
Lewis Hamilton
I’ve never been a massive fan of testing, I just love racing! It’s probably the only year I would have asked for more days though, because we’ve got lots of work to do. We’ve never felt in the past that we were quicker than everyone else after testing because you never know what people are doing with the fuel and set-ups. We always just focus on understanding our car the best way we can so if I’m honest, I feel the same this year. We won’t know until we get to qualifying in two weeks’ time exactly where we stand.
Today we made some improvements but it’s still not where we want to be. I can’t pick out any one area, it just feels globally through the lap that we need to improve. I’m looking forward to getting back into competition and back in that focus mode. Our team is all rowing in the same boat - we win and we lose together. I’m just happy to start another journey together with these boys and girls.
Andrew Shovlin
We’ve had another day with good reliability where we were able to run to plan throughout the day. Valtteri was doing long run setup work in the morning and Lewis doing a mix of long run work and qualifying work in the afternoon. We’ve made a bit of progress with the balance on higher fuel and the car was more predictable but we can see from the data we’ve collected over the last few days that on race pace, we’re not as quick as Red Bull. The lower fuel work was a more confusing picture, we didn’t gain enough and we need to go and look at our approach as far too many cars were ahead of us on pace today. We’ve had issues in recent years with pace in winter testing and managed to make good progress before the first race but we may have our work cut out this time. We’ve not got long before we’re back here for the race so we’ve planned a programme of work to try and understand some of our issues and will be leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to find some more speed over the next ten days.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."~William Shakespeare
Is Shovlin genuinely worried or is it just another "my tires are gone" moment?
Genuine, IMO. I have no doubt Merc will dig deep over the next 12 days, but if the race was today, Merc would struggle to make Q3 which is flat out embarassing considering they used to lap midfield cars at a canter a little more than 3 months ago!
Some are speculating that Merc will unveil a new aero package for next week's filming day. Given all the restrictions this year (budget cap, development, testing days, etc.), it makes no sense to start hiding parts, especially not for a filming day where you can't put competitive tyres nor gather data.
Lets try a different approach. Assuming that there is no actual problem, what is best for marketing? Dominating preseason testing and dominating the championship once more, or struggling during testing and dominating the championship? I think the latter
Marcin Budkowski has said that it looks like Mercedes is sandbagging and that he expects them at the front. Also said that Red Bull is strong, and after that, it’s very close among the remaining cars in the chasing pack.
On a side note, there is zero, and I mean zero question, that Merc is capable of reaching Q3.
Some of the claims are getting a bit sensationalist.
Starting to think they really should have done a filming day at Silverstone now.
Although now they still have that filming dayare they gonna play that trick again bringing just parts to test something and the final versions coming in for testing on filming day i wonder
Agreed. I think they'll use the filming day to do some trials of some new parts without lots of cameras poking in at them.
Yes i just read it is not even 1 day but both days they can use ?
Now i am curious what is 100km is this with in and out laps ?
Also the cars from the other teams are staying there , will there also be teammembers onsite everyday to keep an eye on their cars ?
Marcin Budkowski has said that it looks like Mercedes is sandbagging and that he expects them at the front. Also said that Red Bull is strong, and after that, it’s very close among the remaining cars in the chasing pack.
On a side note, there is zero, and I mean zero question, that Merc is capable of reaching Q3.
Some of the claims are getting a bit sensationalist.
I didn't say they wouldn't, I said they'd struggle relatively speaking (compared to last year for instance).
Fortunately for Merc, there are only 3 GP in the next 7 weeks, which gives them plenty of time to come up with solutions to their current problems.
I didn't say they wouldn't, I said they'd struggle relatively speaking (compared to last year for instance).
Fortunately for Merc, there are only 3 GP in the next 7 weeks, which gives them plenty of time to come up with solutions to their current problems.
Respectfully, struggling to make it to Q3 is far-fetched enough, in and of itself. *If* Red Bull are genuinely ahead right now, it's still close between them and Mercedes. Those 2 teams are in a class of their own.
but if the race was today, Merc would struggle to make Q3 which is flat out embarassing considering they used to lap midfield cars at a canter a little more than 3 months ago!
I don't know what you've seen that has led you to making the struggling to make Q3 claims.
Although now they still have that filming dayare they gonna play that trick again bringing just parts to test something and the final versions coming in for testing on filming day i wonder
Agreed. I think they'll use the filming day to do some trials of some new parts without lots of cameras poking in at them.
Yes i just read it is not even 1 day but both days they can use ?
Now i am curious what is 100km is this with in and out laps ?
Also the cars from the other teams are staying there , will there also be teammembers onsite everyday to keep an eye on their cars ?
I wonder if the Merc "obvious item" that James Allen mentioned is going to be something clever in the diffuser such as McLaren found. If they've designed the car to have that but didn't want to show it at the tests, that would explain why the W12 looks a handful - it is lacking rear downforce at the test.
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
