2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[NL_Fer]

The horrible asphalt in Turkey was because the very late resurfacing of the track last year. If the Turks don’t mess up again this time, it should be a Mercedes track with all those fast corners.

[zibby43]

Fight for the Championship Race Track Outlook

Tyre Characteristics of tracks at which Mercedes were comfortably fastest:

Shocking that Merc only been clearly faster on three tracks! And I have double checked!

Monza -Q3 Gap to rival 0.3s
Traction 3
Braking 4
Lateral 2
Tyre Stress 5
Asphalt grip 2
Asphalt abrasion 3
Downforce 1

Hungary -Q3 Gap to rival 0.4s
Traction 3
Braking 2
Lateral 4
Tyre Stress 3
Asphalt grip 3
Asphalt abrasion 2
Downforce 5

Portimao -Q3 Gap to rival 0.4s
Traction 4
Braking 4
Lateral 3
Tyre Stress 4
Asphalt grip ? (low from observation )
Asphalt abrasion ? (low from observation)
Downforce 4

It seems the car favours medium traction tracks (3 to 4), with moderate to high tyre stress (3 to 5). The car also had an advantage on slipperier tracks Asphalt grip and abrasion (low).


Upcoming Track

Istanbul Park

Traction 4
Braking 3
Lateral 4
Tyre Stress 5
Asphalt grip ? (expected to be low)
Asphalt abrasion ? (expected to be low)
Downforce 4

Judging by Istanbul Park's tyre parameters, Mercedes should in theory be ahead of RedBull! Well, the lateral rating of 4 mirrors Hungary, but Mercedes were stronger than RedBull there. So fingers crossed!

Thanks for putting this together.

The quali gap in Silverstone would’ve been decent if Hamilton didn’t have that power slide when up 4 tenths on his final run.

Merc had narrow advantages at Barcelona, Portimao, and Imola as well.

[SiLo]

Looked fastest in the dry in Spa as well.

[Juzh]

The horrible asphalt in Turkey was because the very late resurfacing of the track last year. If the Turks don’t mess up again this time, it should be a Mercedes track with all those fast corners.

Did they resurface again? Because if they haven't I dont expect grip to be a lot better. That tarmac is just not up to snuff for racing cars. Same thing as in Portimao where grip also didn't improve at all year on year, it just stayed the same more or less.

[Juzh]

Fight for the Championship Race Track Outlook

Tyre Characteristics of tracks at which Mercedes were comfortably fastest:

Shocking that Merc only been clearly faster on three tracks! And I have double checked!

Monza -Q3 Gap to rival 0.3s
Traction 3
Braking 4
Lateral 2
Tyre Stress 5
Asphalt grip 2
Asphalt abrasion 3
Downforce 1

Hungary -Q3 Gap to rival 0.4s
Traction 3
Braking 2
Lateral 4
Tyre Stress 3
Asphalt grip 3
Asphalt abrasion 2
Downforce 5

Portimao -Q3 Gap to rival 0.4s
Traction 4
Braking 4
Lateral 3
Tyre Stress 4
Asphalt grip ? (low from observation )
Asphalt abrasion ? (low from observation)
Downforce 4

It seems the car favours medium traction tracks (3 to 4), with moderate to high tyre stress (3 to 5). The car also had an advantage on slipperier tracks Asphalt grip and abrasion (low).


Upcoming Track

Istanbul Park

Traction 4
Braking 3
Lateral 4
Tyre Stress 5
Asphalt grip ? (expected to be low)
Asphalt abrasion ? (expected to be low)
Downforce 4

Judging by Istanbul Park's tyre parameters, Mercedes should in theory be ahead of RedBull! Well, the lateral rating of 4 mirrors Hungary, but Mercedes were stronger than RedBull there. So fingers crossed!

You missed silverstone where Hamilton should have been around 0.3 clear of Verstappen in qualifying but messed up final corner. His Q3 lap that was good enough for pole was slower than his Q2 lap, just goes to show they had a pretty big advantage there already.

[basti313]

You also need to look at tire allocations.
Merc definitely profits of the combination high stress and hard tires. Once they are out of this comfort zone they have tire temp issues.

https://press.pirelli.com/2021-tyre-compound-choices/

The interesting thing is, that Pirelli has not planned any C1 running this year anymore.

[AeroDynamic]

What of the 7 remaining can Mercedes expect to be ahead of Red Bull? The weather has been kind to red bull in disrupting what could’ve been a straight forward win for Mercedes in Belgium and a significant pts gain in the drivers championship in Russia.

If I understand right, the Mercedes likes medium to high speed corners most with its wheel base profile.

Jedda - long straights?
Losail - medium to high speed corners? Similar to Turkey?
USA might be about even ground?

The new Abu Dhabi wil have a couple of more faster or flowing corners apparently.

[atanatizante]

What's the best track to take new PU + components for Hamilton, do you reckon ?

Mexico imo if it happens.

There could be another variable: VER can get COVID-19 ... not that I`m wishing him that ...

[PlatinumZealot]

In Mexico it is suicide to start at the back. Impossible to pass. Mexico startegy should be to start high and press your rival into a mistake.

[atanatizante]

Brazil is hard an tyres and their could be rain. Change engine. Do Q3. Do the qualifying race and collect three points. Start at the back on hards and go long?

USA is also another good race to pass on if the car is set up for it.

In all of these options Bottas is key here because he is the only one that can deny Max a win if Lewis ever takes an engine penalty.

Presently, Bottas seems more likely to jump out of his way and give him a cordial wave and a round of applause on the way past!

I won`t blame BOT too hard due to these circumstances:
- he was starting on the harder tyre and we know W12 is warming up them slower than other cars, particularly RB16B
- track temp was 22 degrees Celsius, which was way too lower for their optimum operation range
- last but not least, he was on an even higher RW setup than HAM, something that gave him an almost 35km/h delta speed between VER on DRS (339km/h) and his top speed without DRS at S2/intermediate 2 when he reached almost 305km/h (20km/h less due to no DRS):



- not to mention at that lap (4 ?) he has had a slight oversteer moment at turn 10 which led him to put the power down later this affecting his top speed in S2/intermediate 2 ...

[El Scorchio]

What's the best track to take new PU + components for Hamilton, do you reckon ?

Mexico imo if it happens.

There could be another variable: VER can get COVID-19 ... not that I`m wishing him that ...

That would be a rubbish way for the season to end, so let's hope not.

[Marty_Y]

Mexico imo if it happens.

There could be another variable: VER can get COVID-19 ... not that I`m wishing him that ...

That would be a rubbish way for the season to end, so let's hope not.

Totally agree, that would be a very disappointing way to decide a season.

And it goes both ways, Hamilton may have had it before and be fully vaccinated but that doesn't stop him from testing positive with no symptoms.

[Gillian]

If either Hamilton or Verstappen would be unable to drive a race would be terrible... Just like it would be very disappointing if a crash or engine failure would determine the winner.

I hope they both give their best for the upcoming races and finish this awesome season in style!

[SiLo]

Brazil is hard an tyres and their could be rain. Change engine. Do Q3. Do the qualifying race and collect three points. Start at the back on hards and go long?

USA is also another good race to pass on if the car is set up for it.

In all of these options Bottas is key here because he is the only one that can deny Max a win if Lewis ever takes an engine penalty.

Presently, Bottas seems more likely to jump out of his way and give him a cordial wave and a round of applause on the way past!

I won`t blame BOT too hard due to these circumstances:
- he was starting on the harder tyre and we know W12 is warming up them slower than other cars, particularly RB16B
- track temp was 22 degrees Celsius, which was way too lower for their optimum operation range
- last but not least, he was on an even higher RW setup than HAM, something that gave him an almost 35km/h delta speed between VER on DRS (339km/h) and his top speed without DRS at S2/intermediate 2 when he reached almost 305km/h (20km/h less due to no DRS):

http://postimg.cc/w103qsSp

- not to mention at that lap (4 ?) he has had a slight oversteer moment at turn 10 which led him to put the power down later this affecting his top speed in S2/intermediate 2 ...

All of those things can be thrown out the window when he made zero effort to defend the move. If he fought it a bit and made Max go to the outside of the corner, he could have run him wide (and ironically, find out that Max won't back off and have a crash) and keep the position.

[El Scorchio]

Presently, Bottas seems more likely to jump out of his way and give him a cordial wave and a round of applause on the way past!

I won`t blame BOT too hard due to these circumstances:
- he was starting on the harder tyre and we know W12 is warming up them slower than other cars, particularly RB16B
- track temp was 22 degrees Celsius, which was way too lower for their optimum operation range
- last but not least, he was on an even higher RW setup than HAM, something that gave him an almost 35km/h delta speed between VER on DRS (339km/h) and his top speed without DRS at S2/intermediate 2 when he reached almost 305km/h (20km/h less due to no DRS):

http://postimg.cc/w103qsSp

- not to mention at that lap (4 ?) he has had a slight oversteer moment at turn 10 which led him to put the power down later this affecting his top speed in S2/intermediate 2 ...

All of those things can be thrown out the window when he made zero effort to defend the move. If he fought it a bit and made Max go to the outside of the corner, he could have run him wide (and ironically, find out that Max won't back off and have a crash) and keep the position.

Verstappen would 100% back out of that one! It's a no brainer. There's no advantage to him doing it in that situation.
In fact, should he and Hamilton find themselves in a Monza position while Verstappen is behind in the championship, I am certain he'd back out of that as well.