2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Xyz22]

Lewis interview is pretty clear. They didn't get it right with the setup.

Lewis has been suffering from understeer, as he said in his interview. Probably, in order to compensate, he had to push the rear tyres more, which resulted in a way worse management compared to Russell. George was either more at ease with this kind of balance (like Sainz) or his side of the garage did a better job.

Leclerc suffered from the same issue in Singapore, to a lesser extent.

[Luscion]

Lewis interview is pretty clear. They didn't get it right with the setup.

Lewis has been suffering from understeer, as he said in his interview. Probably, in order to compensate, he had to push the rear tyres more, which resulted in a way worse management compared to Russell. George was either more at ease with this kind of balance (like Sainz) or his side of the garage did a better job.

Leclerc suffered from the same issue in Singapore, to a lesser extent.

i wonder if they're going to do sim runs overnight along with tweaking the stuff they can under parc ferme and just bite the bullet and start in the pit lane if the sim shows a bigger improvement. i cant see them being in the top 10 tomorrow with just changing what they can under parc ferme but who knows

[Xyz22]

Lewis interview is pretty clear. They didn't get it right with the setup.

Lewis has been suffering from understeer, as he said in his interview. Probably, in order to compensate, he had to push the rear tyres more, which resulted in a way worse management compared to Russell. George was either more at ease with this kind of balance (like Sainz) or his side of the garage did a better job.

Leclerc suffered from the same issue in Singapore, to a lesser extent.

i wonder if they're going to do sim runs overnight along with tweaking the stuff they can under parc ferme and just bite the bullet and start in the pit lane if the sim shows a bigger improvement. i cant see them being in the top 10 tomorrow with just tweaking the front wing etc

One thing they can immediately do tomorrow is to take a more conservative approach in the first few laps. They were very quick today, and that wasn't probably the optimal way to manage the stint.

They can change something front wing related, but nothing major. Lewis will have to find a way to deal with this balance in a better way. Not an easy job for sure.

[CHT]

Lewis interview is pretty clear. They didn't get it right with the setup.

Lewis has been suffering from understeer, as he said in his interview. Probably, in order to compensate, he had to push the rear tyres more, which resulted in a way worse management compared to Russell. George was either more at ease with this kind of balance (like Sainz) or his side of the garage did a better job.

Leclerc suffered from the same issue in Singapore, to a lesser extent.

i wonder if they're going to do sim runs overnight along with tweaking the stuff they can under parc ferme and just bite the bullet and start in the pit lane if the sim shows a bigger improvement. i cant see them being in the top 10 tomorrow with just tweaking the front wing etc

One thing they can immediately do tomorrow is to take a more conservative approach in the first few laps. They were very quick today, and that wasn't probably the optimal way to manage the stint.

They can change something front wing related, but nothing major. Lewis will have to find a way to deal with this balance in a better way. Not an easy job for sure.

W14 doesn't have the straight-line speed to recover if they loss track positions by running conservative in the first few laps

[DGP123]

Aka weekend write off

[InsaneX_Badger]

Might as well breach parc ferme and see if a new set up can help the Deg issues. If they do a better job the track will allow overtakes

[toraabe]

i wonder if they're going to do sim runs overnight along with tweaking the stuff they can under parc ferme and just bite the bullet and start in the pit lane if the sim shows a bigger improvement. i cant see them being in the top 10 tomorrow with just tweaking the front wing etc

One thing they can immediately do tomorrow is to take a more conservative approach in the first few laps. They were very quick today, and that wasn't probably the optimal way to manage the stint.

They can change something front wing related, but nothing major. Lewis will have to find a way to deal with this balance in a better way. Not an easy job for sure.

W14 doesn't have the straight-line speed to recover if they loss track positions by running conservative in the first few laps

Their straight line speed is partially due to a slightly short final drive. Mc Laren who is running their own gearbox got it right and is not suffering from this as the others are doing.

[Spoutnik]

They should take a new engine and start from pit line. The chance of SC are pretty high especially with guys like Stroll up ahead

[Luscion]

welp, looks like Merc arent even considering starting from the pit lane. Toto also said theyre running a higher than normal ride height

[Spoutnik]

welp, looks like Merc arent even considering starting from the pit lane. Toto also said theyre running a higher than normal ride height

They will end up fighting with the AT for P8

[atanatizante]

Lower temperatures should hurt the harder compound tomorrow as it'll slide more and be easier to grain.
...
So I don't see M/M/H being likely. S/M/M like others will do is going to be quicker even if Merc are bad with the soft. Just have to hope they don't cook the medium tyre as well

Track temps were high and most of all constant in FP1:



Those were the times set by RUS and HAM in their long runs accordingly:




From the above times and mostly from their low top speed, it seems that they set up (or should I rather say their optimum window setup?) the cars for the M tyres ...

Then at the sprint race between the start and the end of it, there was a whopping 13.5 degrees C drop in track temp:



So in the sprint race, at the first laps, the tyres were in their window, then due to both track temp dropping and the increased load setup for the M tyres (targeting the main race) they were starting to slide hence overheating (especially the rears) or as they say went into thermal deg ...

It`ll be interesting to see had they opt for the same strategy as they did in Austin, starting on M tyres and watching had they could do an M-H one-stop race or just go for an M-M-S to stop-race this time around ...

[Spoutnik]

Honestly with such a straight line speed, and these tyre. I can see one of the Merc out of the points

[Bill_Kar]

Are you even confident that they can optimally set up the car even if they are given the chance and break parc ferme rules? Because I personally have trust issues with this team.

[Spoutnik]

Nope. Will spend the race fighting with Tsunoda & Gasly I'm afraid

[DGP123]

Nope. Will spend the race fighting with Tsunoda & Gasly I'm afraid

No, they won’t. You do know Yuki/Pierre are 15th/16th on the grid.

Hopefully the car works better on the M compound. Ideally, Ham needs to jump the Aston’s, and then manage behind LEC/VER. Russell’s penalty means he will be the one fighting more today, like Hamilton was yesterday