2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[ringo]

Hamilton needs to get pole here.
So maybe has to start on his q2 tyres.
The pressure is on Bottas now to be leading the race ahead of Max.
Lewis can easily overtake here. It will be like killing ants up to a point.
Even with mclaren's i can see W12 getting off the turns better and being able to drs and walk past other cars.
The risk is surviving turn 1. cars tend to squeeze each other here.

As for the ICE change it shows that the Honda engine is better engineered. The merc must have some kind of valve seal issues or even rotating assembly wear issues.
Honda have by fsr the most bullet proof engine and i think they deserve platitudes for acheiving that.

[darkpino]

Thanks for clearing it up all!

[Gillian]

Hamilton needs to get pole here.
So maybe has to start on his q2 tyres.
The pressure is on Bottas now to be leading the race ahead of Max.
Lewis can easily overtake here. It will be like killing ants up to a point.
Even with mclaren's i can see W12 getting off the turns better and being able to drs and walk past other cars.
The risk is surviving turn 1. cars tend to squeeze each other here.

As for the ICE change it shows that the Honda engine is better engineered. The merc must have some kind of valve seal issues or even rotating assembly wear issues.
Honda have by fsr the most bullet proof engine and i think they deserve platitudes for acheiving that.

Agree with everything. And after these sessions Hamilton will probably have the confidence to take it easy in the first corners. Enough pace to get a podium atleast!

[214270]

That would be mad wouldn't it? You're just conceding the win race after race by constantly giving yourself grid penalties. Far better to just do all the pain in one race.

The calculus would be that 10 positions is not enough of a penalty to remove the possibility of a HAM win. I guess it depends if VER qualifies ahead and is allowed to run & hide. Either way, it’s a better way to maximise the strengths/motivations. HAM usually has blistering race pace & can make up the deficit and BOT is up front & hungry, staring at maybe his final ever win. I think this is more sensible way to play the BOT hand. Just my musings

I understand in theory that seems sound, but Verstappen would, assuming nothing goes wrong for him, be able to open up a 10-15 second gap easily in the first 10-15 laps or any race given the relative pace of the cars sitting between them, and those cars will not be easy to breeze past as we've seen in the last few races. And he would rag it at the start to get a big gap to cover a pit stop. Don't forget Perez will likely be between them as well, run long, and hold Hamilton up. As for Bottas, it's a shame to say it, but he has shown no ability (or maybe even desire?) to keep Verstappen behind him when it counts.

To add, Hamilton would take a lot out of his tyres making up positions and likely end up in a situation like Verstappen was in Sochi until the rain came to his aid. He wasn't sniffing the top six before that happened, and may even have finished 8th or 9th.

HAM’s one of the better racers on the grid when it comes to tyre preservation so I’m not so sure about your last point. And yes, PER can try to stifle but HAM will make enough progress to remain in VER pit window I believe, which means VER will need to overtake HAM on-track to progress if HAM goes long. At least this time round it’ll be a riskier overtake for VER, as he’s the one that needs to maximise points. We’ll see how the race shapes up.

[dans79]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.motors ... 83053/amp/

Speaking about why Mercedes did not go for a complete switch, the team's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said it felt a full change would not have offered the benefits needed to justify it.

He told Sky Sports F1: "We are simulating all the races until the end of the year.


"There is the balance and risk of a reliability issue, and obviously the thing that you definitely don't want to do is fail during the race and then have to take a penalty anyway.

"Then there is also a performance element because the power units do lose a bit of horsepower over their life.

"The 10-place penalty is the bit that most contributes to that reliability element and the performance is the ICE itself, so it is better to take 10 places than to start from the back."

[Big Tea]

With Ferrari and McLaren both looking good here, anyone think it may worthwhile Ham not doing his best qualli lap on the softs?

If there is a battle between Ferrari McLaren and RBR They may fight it out for the top spot working the tyres hard and a start fro14 th on hards could easily pay dividends by tyre stop time

[zibby43]

[zibby43]

With Ferrari and McLaren both looking good here, anyone think it may worthwhile Ham not doing his best qualli lap on the softs?

If there is a battle between Ferrari McLaren and RBR They may fight it out for the top spot working the tyres hard and a start fro14 th on hards could easily pay dividends by tyre stop time

He’ll try to get through Q2 on Mediums. That’s what ultimately matters. The Softs are graining dramatically here.

[dans79]

With Ferrari and McLaren both looking good here, anyone think it may worthwhile Ham not doing his best qualli lap on the softs?

If there is a battle between Ferrari McLaren and RBR They may fight it out for the top spot working the tyres hard and a start fro14 th on hards could easily pay dividends by tyre stop time

He’ll try to get through Q2 on Mediums. That’s what ultimately matters. The Softs are graining dramatically here.

I expect that if he doesn't make it into q3, they will find something on the car to change so he can start from the pitlane, and thus completely change how the car is set-up.

[Big Tea]

With Ferrari and McLaren both looking good here, anyone think it may worthwhile Ham not doing his best qualli lap on the softs?

If there is a battle between Ferrari McLaren and RBR They may fight it out for the top spot working the tyres hard and a start fro14 th on hards could easily pay dividends by tyre stop time

He’ll try to get through Q2 on Mediums. That’s what ultimately matters. The Softs are graining dramatically here.

If he can get through on hard it will be a big advantage later. He could still go for pole as long as he is in q3.
Even 9 or 10 would do. Perhaps out on a fast lap on meds when the flag drops and be prepared to not finish if he is safe


(Sorry, just noticed I put 14th above, I mean 11 th. )

[Big Tea]

With Ferrari and McLaren both looking good here, anyone think it may worthwhile Ham not doing his best qualli lap on the softs?

If there is a battle between Ferrari McLaren and RBR They may fight it out for the top spot working the tyres hard and a start fro14 th on hards could easily pay dividends by tyre stop time

He’ll try to get through Q2 on Mediums. That’s what ultimately matters. The Softs are graining dramatically here.

I expect that if he doesn't make it into q3, they will find something on the car to change so he can start from the pitlane, and thus completely change how the car is set-up.

I think he would stil have to start on the same tyre, would he not?

[F1NAC]

According to AMuS it seems that the engine(4) that was replaced in Russia is not usable anymore for racing for Bottas

[atanatizante]

After FP2 Sim race laps it seems that delta time between soft and medium Tyre is 6 tenths on average. So we could see LEC, NOR or RIC starting on soft tyres with the likes of BOT, VER (and PER of course) on medium ones on the front row. In that case VER could negate the HAM's long first stint on the same medium tyres. That's way I think HAM should try to qualy in Q2 on hard tyres, something doable bearing in mind their race pace advantage here, those 4 tenths delta to medium tyres and OCO's low fuel times set in FP2 on hard tyres...

[dans79]

He’ll try to get through Q2 on Mediums. That’s what ultimately matters. The Softs are graining dramatically here.

I expect that if he doesn't make it into q3, they will find something on the car to change so he can start from the pitlane, and thus completely change how the car is set-up.

I think he would stil have to start on the same tyre, would he not?

I'd have to look it up to be 100% sure, But if you end up starting from the pit lane I think you can use any tire you want.

[NL_Fer]

According to AMuS it seems that the engine(4) that was replaced in Russia is not usable anymore for racing for Bottas

Will we ever know what is wrong with it? Overheated on Zandvoort or fault in manufacturing.