2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[ringo]

Mercedes need to ensure Lewis and Bottas manage the pace and drive safely and only focus on Max. Let Perez do what he wants he doesnt have the pace to win.
Max can still win this race easily he has a very fast race car despite the minor setback.
As for the Brazil engine.. i does not have to be on the same tune as it was in Brazil. The team probably realized that they ddint need the max power here because of the nature of the circuit.. or its at max power but the setup is more dow force biased.
It will standout more in the final race where they can really gain a lot of time on the straights.

Merc must focus on good strategy here. No silly stuff and dont wait too long to change tyres like they keep on doing.

[dans79]

[Marty_Y]

On that video it shows Lewis's second sector as yellow, (not a personal best or fastest sector) but on the qualification highlights @4.20 mins approximately, it shows Lewis's second sector as purple (fastest sector).


That was such a strange qualification session, Q1 Mercedes were nowhere, struggling to get the best out of the tyres and get a clean lap in.

Q2 Lewis ended up fastest but It took what seemed to be a lot of laps to get the tyres performing. I think that was when he was on the radio saying "I don't know what we're doing. I have no grip out here." The medium tyres he is starting on must have a few laps on them.

Q3 Mercedes seemed to fuel the car for the whole session, Lewis's first attempt could have ended in disaster if it wasn't for his brilliant save when the car got out of shape. But his last run was worthy of pole position, I wonder how much it compromised him having to fuel the car up so he could do multiple laps to get the tyres into the window.

It will be very interesting to see tomorrow what the race pace actually is for Max and Lewis because if Max hadn't crashed he would easily been on pole, Lewis's lap looked smoother and like he was more in control, Max looked like he was going to crash a couple of times before he actually did and was pushing it to the limit.

[dans79]

I have a suspicion that Mercedes Biased the car towards a one stop race, and comprised single lap pace. I get the feeling Red Bull did the opposite!

[Marty_Y]

I have a suspicion that Mercedes Biased the car towards a one stop race, and comprised single lap pace. I get the feeling Red Bull did the opposite!

godlameroso said "Verstappen's tires are in better shape than Hamilton's and given that the mediums can't do more than 16 laps, and his already have 8 laps in low fuel I'd say he'd have to pit round lap 11-12 while Verstappen can overcut a bit"

Which sounds like a load of rubbish, people were improving their times on 10 lap old soft tyres in practice. I don't think the mediums will drop off a cliff after 16 laps.

[Marty_Y]

https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/73057 ... lton-pole/

Reacting to the drama, Wolff told Sky Sports F1: "Formula 1 is crazy and full of surprises.

"They had a very dominant package today, the car was great and they brought the tyres into the window with a single warm-up lap and we struggled to have enough grip.

"He was up by half a second and pole was basically gone but ran wide at the last corner, kept going, stayed on it and touched the wall.

"We ended up one-two which is a big, big advantage for tomorrow but it is just crazy."

Suggesting Red Bull had set their sights on pole with a compromise to its race pace, Wolff explained: "We think they concentrated on a single-lap, that is why they brought the tyre into the window quickly

"If we have that tiny bit of an advantage tomorrow, who knows?"

Put to him his team was on the ropes in qualifying, the Austrian replied: "That is exactly what we thought.

"It was important at that stage to just keep it together, continue attacking, continue attacking and then Valtteri, you see with his lap, it is a big difference to be there with a front-row lockout.

[dans79]

Suggesting Red Bull had set their sights on pole with a compromise to its race pace, Wolff explained: "We think they concentrated on a single-lap, that is why they brought the tyre into the window quickly

Good chance that's exactly what they did.

https://www.racefans.net/2021/12/03/how ... -exchange/

Verstappen, who attacked the new track with such verve from the word go, might sense an opportunity to deny Hamilton pole. It appeared to be on his mind during second practice, when he was offered another opportunity to work on his low-fuel run, but warned that doing so would eat into the time available for a race simulation.

“Let’s go for a double slow[-down lap] but it will compromise our number of laps at high-fuel so it’s up to you,” said race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. “Yeah, I don’t care,” Verstappen replied, and pressed on.

[Tvetovnato]

On that video it shows Lewis's second sector as yellow, (not a personal best or fastest sector) but on the qualification highlights @4.20 mins approximately, it shows Lewis's second sector as purple (fastest sector).


That was such a strange qualification session, Q1 Mercedes were nowhere, struggling to get the best out of the tyres and get a clean lap in.

Q2 Lewis ended up fastest but It took what seemed to be a lot of laps to get the tyres performing. I think that was when he was on the radio saying "I don't know what we're doing. I have no grip out here." The medium tyres he is starting on must have a few laps on them.

Q3 Mercedes seemed to fuel the car for the whole session, Lewis's first attempt could have ended in disaster if it wasn't for his brilliant save when the car got out of shape. But his last run was worthy of pole position, I wonder how much it compromised him having to fuel the car up so he could do multiple laps to get the tyres into the window.

It will be very interesting to see tomorrow what the race pace actually is for Max and Lewis because if Max hadn't crashed he would easily been on pole, Lewis's lap looked smoother and like he was more in control, Max looked like he was going to crash a couple of times before he actually did and was pushing it to the limit.

I don’t think the tyres were in the zone even on Lewis’ pole lap. In the first left hander after the first chicane he still has the understeer he had all through Q, and then you can just see him hesitate all through sector 1 since the rear end might snap for him. Same on the exit of the final quick chicane, just a small small wobble which costs him exit speed.

I think it will be a lot better today with constant push laps on the medium.

[siskue2005]

I have a suspicion that Mercedes Biased the car towards a one stop race, and comprised single lap pace. I get the feeling Red Bull did the opposite!

godlameroso said "Verstappen's tires are in better shape than Hamilton's and given that the mediums can't do more than 16 laps, and his already have 8 laps in low fuel I'd say he'd have to pit round lap 11-12 while Verstappen can overcut a bit"

Which sounds like a load of rubbish, people were improving their times on 10 lap old soft tyres in practice. I don't think the mediums will drop off a cliff after 16 laps.

Lewis lap on the mediums on his 8th lap was faster than his final q3 run by 2 to 3 tenths.. that says a lot about the tyres... it can go till 25 to 30 laps easily, and it's only a 50 lap race tomorrow if I am not mistaken

[mstar]

Do we expect the hards to come on? how many new sets dowsn VB and Lewis have? I think max has 1 hard new.

[siskue2005]

Do we expect the hards to come on? how many new sets dowsn VB and Lewis have? I think max has 1 hard new.

Everyone has new 1 hard and 1 medium
Because they have a set of hard and medium kept aside for the race. So that could be used

[SiLo]

I have a suspicion that Mercedes Biased the car towards a one stop race, and comprised single lap pace. I get the feeling Red Bull did the opposite!

godlameroso said "Verstappen's tires are in better shape than Hamilton's and given that the mediums can't do more than 16 laps, and his already have 8 laps in low fuel I'd say he'd have to pit round lap 11-12 while Verstappen can overcut a bit"

Which sounds like a load of rubbish, people were improving their times on 10 lap old soft tyres in practice. I don't think the mediums will drop off a cliff after 16 laps.

He only did 2 hot laps on them. The rest were warm up or cruising around looking for a gap.

[McG]

Masi is one corrupt mf. No way it needed a red flag.

[1m0bius1]

Yep. Masi in Brazil and now again trying to let Max walk to this championship

[McG]

Was never really a Hamilton/Mercedes supporter but the Versappen/Redbull and this nervous buffoon Masi make it very easy to favour Hamilton in this championship.