2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[nzjrs]

I just find it questiable/convenient that the claim is ever Merc powered car besides Russell will need a need a 4th PU.

I don't see what the omission of Russel communicates here?

Do you mean you would find a claim that all Merc PU powered teams are planning for a 4th PU more or less credible?

[El Scorchio]

I just find it questiable/convenient that the claim is ever Merc powered car besides Russell will need a need a 4th PU.

I don't see what the omission of Russel communicates here?

Do you mean you would find a claim that all Merc PU powered teams are planning for a 4th PU more or less credible?

I guess it would imply that it's perfectly feasible to get through the season with the allotted PU allowance, even if in Russell's case there's not much downside in doing the swap. So therefore is it a gimme that Hamilton's should need changing as well? As was mentioned, the only issue he's had so far was with PU1 in Zandvoort, and it wasn't a big issue.

He may well end up taking one as may Russell, but this would say it's not a foregone conclusion.

To add- the Mclaren and AM drivers could do it to get a power advantage in their close battles with Ferrari and Alpine respectively. Hamilton wouldn't do that unless it were absolutely necessary.

[Marty_Y]

[PlatinumZealot]

This year an extra three races were added. This means each of the alloted three engines has to do an extra race to survive. (8 races).
Hamilton has saved miles on two power tracks. Spa and Monza. This could be a huge life savings for his third engine and may just make it posssible, especially if goes down to 22 races, to make the season.

On the other hand if things go pear shaped it is a balance of how many points can we collect now? Versus not leaving it too late to the point were engine performance has to be diminished.

Imagine if his fourth engine comes in the last race? And he has to finish fifth to win for example?! That would be crazy. Not the Mercedes way of doing things is it.

[Phil]

Yours is an opinion, Michal Schmidt is reporting information gathered by AMuS from team engineers.

Personally, I trust a verifiable quote from the team principle more than I do an unverifable one from an unknown team member.

Personally, I think Michael Schmidt is a very credible source. What you may hear from Toto directly may just be the official view - what you get from Michael Schmidt is more akin to what goes on behind the scene. My guess is though, most of what gets posted on AMuS is sometimes lost in translation and they do have some "sensationalist headlines" sometimes. From all the F1 news sites I frequent though, AMuS is one of the most credible ones I trust - especially the articles from Schmidt given his sources within the paddock. Same applies to Joe [Saward] of course.

[PlatinumZealot]

I have never been convinced by Joe Saward's speculations. Strangely he is one of the first online Journalists I knew of - dont know i never caught on to hi
. He seems to always be throwing stuff and hope something sticks, contrasting with the approach of someone like a Dieter Renken who goe straight to the horse to hear from him.

IMO Peter Schmidt is more level headed, but he doesn't have a glowing hit rate either. You know since Amus is German they tend to convince us that they have insider stuff on the Mercedes F1 team (haha). But after so many bad predictions on Bottas and upgrades etc, I realise they are no more informed than regular f1 journos.

[Marty_Y]

Mercedes had the fastest pit stop in Russia.


A entertaining video of Bottas pitting then driving to 5th position. Although Bottas had nothing to loose because he was out of the point scoring positions it was still a good call to go for the intermediate tyres early and see what happens, and it helped in making the decision for Hamilton to also change to intermediates.

He gains most of the places when he passes cars in the pits and there are a couple of easy overtakes of cars still on slicks but it's still a good watch imo.

[El Scorchio]

Mercedes had the fastest pit stop in Russia.


A entertaining video of Bottas pitting then driving to 5th position. Although Bottas had nothing to loose because he was out of the point scoring positions it was still a good call to go for the intermediate tyres early and see what happens, and it helped in making the decision for Hamilton to also change to intermediates.

He gains most of the places when he passes cars in the pits and there are a couple of easy overtakes of cars still on slicks but it's still a good watch imo.

So bizarre with that onboard seeing the track go from almost dry to filthy weather and back again over the course of a lap.

[Marty_Y]

Mercedes had the fastest pit stop in Russia.


A entertaining video of Bottas pitting then driving to 5th position. Although Bottas had nothing to loose because he was out of the point scoring positions it was still a good call to go for the intermediate tyres early and see what happens, and it helped in making the decision for Hamilton to also change to intermediates.

He gains most of the places when he passes cars in the pits and there are a couple of easy overtakes of cars still on slicks but it's still a good watch imo.

So bizarre with that onboard seeing the track go from almost dry to filthy weather and back again over the course of a lap.

It must have been hard judging the level of grip from one part of the track to the other, It looked like he had a couple of twitchy moments, Towards the end of the race the rain was really coming down hard.

[AeroDynamic]

So Pirelli has allocated the hardest tyre range for the Qatar Grand Prix. The circuit and those tyres should make it a comfortable shot at winning for Mercedes.

[adrianjordan]

Question for the better memories members on here. How many races between Lewis' 99th and 100th Pole?

I seem to remember one of his previous milestones took a while to get over the line, whether it be 100 poles or something else.

I wonder whether he potentially gets what American sports commentators might call "the yips" and whether he might suddenly step up a gear now.

I do think Valtieri is driving better since announcing his future plans as the pressure is off.

[SiLo]

Question for the better memories members on here. How many races between Lewis' 99th and 100th Pole?

I seem to remember one of his previous milestones took a while to get over the line, whether it be 100 poles or something else.

I wonder whether he potentially gets what American sports commentators might call "the yips" and whether he might suddenly step up a gear now.

I do think Valtieri is driving better since announcing his future plans as the pressure is off.

it was quite a few if I remember - but then he's only had one more since getting the 100 so maybe it's just that the RB has been the better car this year alongside his own AND Mercedes mistakes. Spa is unknown, but he probably should have won in Monza and definitely should have won in Hungary. I reckon he can get to 110 wins before he retires.

[atanatizante]

This year an extra three races were added. This means each of the allotted three engines has to do an extra race to survive. (8 races).
Hamilton has saved miles on two power tracks. Spa and Monza. This could be a huge lifesaver for his third engine and may just make it possible, especially if goes down to 22 races, to make the season.

On the other hand, if things go pear-shaped it is a balance of how many points can we collect now? Versus not leaving it too late to the point where engine performance has to be diminished.

Imagine if his fourth engine comes in the last race? And he has to finish fifth to win for example?! That would be crazy. Not the Mercedes way of doing things is it.

This!

The 3rd PU went at Spa for HAM, had I`m not wrong. And just for this race alone, the spare mileage could be enough to get it through the end of the season without the need to take the 4th PU. This bearing in mind that in Mexico and Brasil there is a high risk of a wet race where PU at this time of the year hence this 3rd PU would not be so stressed ...

As I recall, the official Merc statement regarding HAM`s PU failure at Zandvoort was due to some "oil pressure loss" and was in line with what VET have had and the root cause was due to the high banking turn 2, something which was more they simulated on the dyno ...

HAM have to play it safe from now on and treat his PU as kind as it gets, like he just stated. It`s more important to be consistent and running the whole PU at 97-98% for the remaining races and even lower than that had there are wet races ...

But to have a clear picture based on facts, does someone have stats regarding the mileage of HAM`s 3rd PU?
Though, it would be better had we get some info about the mileage from both PU specs, the first and the second spec ...

[ringo]

So for the Zandvoort engine. He still has that engine and its okay?
Did they just ivestigate and say ok it was a minor issue, its still good and stays in the pool?

[SiLo]

So for the Zandvoort engine. He still has that engine and its okay?
Did they just ivestigate and say ok it was a minor issue, its still good and stays in the pool?

I think they said it was the last weekend it was going to be used for practice anyway, so it literally would have done FP3 and then been removed from the pool.