2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[dans79]

Does anyone have any quotes that outline Mercedes strategy for setting up their cars? It comes accrosss to me- given the situation with the w12 being a challenge to set up-that they might be using Bottas to set up the car ‘safely’ based on more what the team thinks is optimum. And Lewis is using his car to experiment and try more things, his own ideas: throw everything at it to see what sticks. Whatever is best come Saturday is what they settle on. Obviously Bottas customises his setup to get comfortable too, but this is just the feeling I get?

I think it's more likely that Lewis is just running his oldest PU, and is just experimenting. I watched a lot of his onboard, and he was trying slightly different lines, and seeing how late he could brake, and how early he could get on the throttle!

[adrianjordan]

I watched the interview Lewis gave with SkyF1 and he mentioned that they found the perfect setup in Brazil (paraphrasing there). I appreciate they are different circuits with different demands, but would there be any value in them using that setup as a baseline nland trying to tweak it to this circuit, since it was SO effective in Brazil?

[cheeRS]

Some more comments from LEC, who continues to be one of my favorite drivers on the grid.

https://twitter.com/planet_f1/status/14 ... 37092?s=21

Noone can go beyond of what a car can give. It is physically impossible. You can say he squeezed everything out of his car and even that is not entirely true, due to the human nature and limitations.

I understand your point, but it's just a saying, just a figure of speech when a driver does something that is exceptional. Sometimes when a driver has a performance that even the other drivers can't understand, they will say something like this, or that the driver "extracted more than 100%" or "outdrove the car". Cheers to Charles for recognizing that!

[mkay]

Taking a moment to praise the form of Bottas. Since it was announced he's going to Alfa Romeo he's been really quick! Just shows you the weight on his shoulders has been lifted, and was fighting the same mental battle Rosberg has frequently admitted to struggling with to compete with Lewis. If he had this pace all season I'm not convinced Russell would have replaced him for next season.

He's been quick in FP2... which is nothing new for him. He tends to lack pace when it matters in Q3 or during races.

Hamilton would have probably gapped him by at least 20-30 seconds had he started P1 in Brazil. He also outqualified Bottas by over 5 tenths on a 67 second lap.

I like Bottas but let's wait until qualifying. Also, per The Race, sounds like BOT and HAM went different routes set-up wise (to cover more ground) and HAM is expected to converge towards BOT's tomorrow.

[Xero]

Taking a moment to praise the form of Bottas. Since it was announced he's going to Alfa Romeo he's been really quick! Just shows you the weight on his shoulders has been lifted, and was fighting the same mental battle Rosberg has frequently admitted to struggling with to compete with Lewis. If he had this pace all season I'm not convinced Russell would have replaced him for next season.

He's been quick in FP2... which is nothing new for him. He tends to lack pace when it matters in Q3 or during races.

Hamilton would have probably gapped him by at least 20-30 seconds had he started P1 in Brazil. He also outqualified Bottas by over 5 tenths on a 67 second lap.

I like Bottas but let's wait until qualifying. Also, per The Race, sounds like BOT and HAM went different routes set-up wise (to cover more ground) and HAM is expected to converge towards BOT's tomorrow.

He does tend to fall off, but he's been starting from first place in 4 of the last 6 Grand Prixs (ignoring penalties). He's never going to be on the race pace of Lewis and Max up front, but he's in the mix more often and leading Mercedes towards that constructors championship it seems.

[siskue2005]

Taking a moment to praise the form of Bottas. Since it was announced he's going to Alfa Romeo he's been really quick! Just shows you the weight on his shoulders has been lifted, and was fighting the same mental battle Rosberg has frequently admitted to struggling with to compete with Lewis. If he had this pace all season I'm not convinced Russell would have replaced him for next season.

He's been quick in FP2... which is nothing new for him. He tends to lack pace when it matters in Q3 or during races.

Hamilton would have probably gapped him by at least 20-30 seconds had he started P1 in Brazil. He also outqualified Bottas by over 5 tenths on a 67 second lap.

I like Bottas but let's wait until qualifying. Also, per The Race, sounds like BOT and HAM went different routes set-up wise (to cover more ground) and HAM is expected to converge towards BOT's tomorrow.

He does tend to fall off, but he's been starting from first place in 4 of the last 6 Grand Prixs (ignoring penalties). He's never going to be on the race pace of Lewis and Max up front, but he's in the mix more often and leading Mercedes towards that constructors championship it seems.

We need Bottas to be fast, so that they can be 1-2 I atleast 1 of the next 3 races..they have not been on 1-2 this season since 2014

[mstar]

Well FIA have confirmed more load and movement tests after qualy. Seems like RB have got their way and got introduced new tests to catch merc out for "manipulating the rules" this is BS. Even if merc fail, then they need time to adjust so i dont know what this all means? As RB had maybe 2 months to adjust their limbo wings

[NathanOlder]

He's been quick in FP2... which is nothing new for him. He tends to lack pace when it matters in Q3 or during races.

Hamilton would have probably gapped him by at least 20-30 seconds had he started P1 in Brazil. He also outqualified Bottas by over 5 tenths on a 67 second lap.

I like Bottas but let's wait until qualifying. Also, per The Race, sounds like BOT and HAM went different routes set-up wise (to cover more ground) and HAM is expected to converge towards BOT's tomorrow.

He does tend to fall off, but he's been starting from first place in 4 of the last 6 Grand Prixs (ignoring penalties). He's never going to be on the race pace of Lewis and Max up front, but he's in the mix more often and leading Mercedes towards that constructors championship it seems.

We need Bottas to be fast, so that they can be 1-2 I atleast 1 of the next 3 races..they have not been on 1-2 this season since 2014

Very oddly, only Mclaren have managed a 1-2 this season!

[Swifty]

Never saw Merc's car at this rhytm. Best fit aerodinamically and untouchable PU, mental perfomance from the engineers. Kudos.

[Marty_Y]

'The last lap was beautiful' - Hamilton
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, who has just claimed his fourth pole position of the season, says: “It is the first time racing here so good to see new fans. Yesterday was difficult for me as I wasn’t feeling too well on Thursday and Friday, and I struggled through practice.

"I had to dig deep. I was here until midnight last night working with engineers and found a lot of areas where I could improve, and made some changes for FP3 - so grateful for the timings as when they put us out on track there was no traffic, and that last lap was beautiful.

"This track is amazing to drive and it felt good. I had a bit of a stomach ache from Wednesday but felt fantastic today, and slept really well last night so that made the difference.

"Being that it is such a fast circuit I don’t think it’s the easiest of circuits to follow, but it is not massively degrading on the tyre - it is a decent run into Turn 1, which is wide so I will give it everything."

[Marty_Y]

Another pole position to add to the statistics, it's a shame that those stupid sprint races and grid penalties have robbed him of poles this season. (Although the sprint race did help him recover from the disqualification last time, in fairness.)

[mstar]

IS this a different wing configuration which doesn't give the reduced drag? the straight line pace seems on-par with RB. I am a bit miffed if this is due to the high speed corners which they cannot use the wing and flex configuration at high speed.

[Tvetovnato]

Another pole position to add to the statistics, it's a shame that those stupid sprint races and grid penalties have robbed him of poles this season. (Although the sprint race did help him recover from the disqualification last time, in fairness.)

Indeed, but they can have the sprint and still award the pole to the one who actually was fastest in qualifying if they wanted to. I mean, Max got two poles to his name this year for basically making a good start at Silverstone and inheriting p1 because of a penalty at Monza. That’s not right IMO (and it would not be right whoever gains from this current rule). Hope they change it for next year.

[Tvetovnato]

IS this a different wing configuration which doesn't give the reduced drag? the straight line pace seems on-par with RB. I am a bit miffed if this is due to the high speed corners which they cannot use the wing and flex configuration at high speed.

Fabrega said that they didn’t use the rocket engine from Brazil today, so that would explain a bit.. and, it could be that they still have an advantage from the engine this weekend, and running slightly more downforce than RB to be able to match them in the corners. There are so many small things that can add up to the current picture.

[Marty_Y]

Lewis Hamilton's Onboard Pole Lap | 2021 Qatar Grand Prix |