2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[siskue2005]

Verstappen only got the edge because of an artificial advantage through the tow. If you think RBR can even try to keep up with Mercs, you should rewatch the last few races. Also, do not sleep on Bottas. He will join the front battle quickly.

Just a reminder that Max was quicker in his 2nd attempt before he aborted it, without a tow:

[Swifty]

Verstappen only got the edge because of an artificial advantage through the tow. If you think RBR can even try to keep up with Mercs, you should rewatch the last few races. Also, do not sleep on Bottas. He will join the front battle quickly.

Just a reminder that Max was quicker in his 2nd attempt before he aborted it, without a tow:

https://i.imgur.com/eFMna8P.png?1

He aborted this lap on the 3rd sector. Ok, first sector improved, but not the 2nd and we don't know about the 3rd.

[siskue2005]

Verstappen only got the edge because of an artificial advantage through the tow. If you think RBR can even try to keep up with Mercs, you should rewatch the last few races. Also, do not sleep on Bottas. He will join the front battle quickly.

Just a reminder that Max was quicker in his 2nd attempt before he aborted it, without a tow:

https://i.imgur.com/eFMna8P.png?1

He aborted this lap on the 3rd sector. Ok, first sector improved, but not the 2nd and we don't know about the 3rd.

Hence what you said "Verstappen only got the edge because of an artificial advantage through the tow." is not true. He was faster either way

[NL_Fer]

Having watched he F2 races, overtaking is not easy and trying to will take the life of followers tires.

[PhillipM]

Hence what you said "Verstappen only got the edge because of an artificial advantage through the tow." is not true. He was faster either way

The tow is the straights in sector 2, not sector one.

[rickybobbyf1]

The Medium is starting to look really bad for Ham. Everyone else is starting on softs. Feels like he is gonna get swamped.

[siskue2005]

The Medium is starting to look really bad for Ham. Everyone else is starting on softs. Feels like he is gonna get swamped.

He will be fine, everyone being over the top really
the run to first corner is one of the shortest

[cooken]

It can't really work both ways. If the soft has so much better grip than the medium, then they won't last as long, it will be somewhat proportional. In other words, if the soft has nearly the same life as the medium, it can't provide that much more grip.

[PhillipM]

Given how much they were pushing them in Q, I'm not sure they're gonna last all that long with 100kg of fuel onboard.

[BSchelbergen]

From the after quali report, Andrew Shovlin:

It was a tricky qualifying for both drivers and unusually, the car felt at its best in the first session and seemed to get less competitive as we progressed. Of course it would have made tomorrow easier if we had pole but we’re pleased to be starting on the Medium tyre and we’ve hopefully added some long run pace overnight. We’ve got a busy night going through the various strategy options for tomorrow but we’ve shown good race pace recently, along with an ability to recover positions and pass on track. We had a much bigger challenge in Brazil and showed what we are capable of, so we’ll be doing everything possible to get ourselves into a position to bring home the win and the championships tomorrow.

What I understand from this is they moved towards a more race setup then the friday en wil benefit their times in the long run hooefully?

[PlatinumZealot]

I think so. Max has a higher top speed, but that is with RedBull's super DRS trick wing. In the race he will be in the front and very vulnerable to the Mercedes DRS and Shovlin seems confident the pass and subsequent later braking is very much on. The other interesting tid-bit is that whenever the RedBull uses their spoon wing they seem more damaged by dirty air. One pass or one undercut is all Lewis needs to seal this.

[pursue_one's]

Mercedes forced to drop power - Verstappen on pole!

Max Verstappen takes an unexpected Pole in Abu Dhabi - also thanks to an effective team strategy by Red Bull. According to the Free Practice simulations, nobody would have thought that the young title contender would be the fastest in Q3 today, but as always, results are only to be assessed at the end - and with data in hand.

According to what Formu1a.uno has learned, Mercedes in fact contradicts the initial predictions and decides to give priority to reliability; less horsepower than those promised to Lewis Hamilton, and old Power Unit for Valtteri Bottas after a problem found in FP3. Forced to drop power for the final appointment of the season, the Mercedes drivers lose the comparison in Qualifying - and will count on a different race strategy to grab the title.

The team from Brackley however was surprised - to the negative - by the balance of the car in Q3, a deficit highlighted by the lack of performance on the softer compound.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

https://www.formu1a.uno/gp-abu-dhabi-me ... -dettagli/

[NathanOlder]

If you had to turn down the engine for reliability then it makes so much sense to change the Engine like before and run it extremely hard for 1 race. Starting 6th with massive power advantage is better than starting 2nd with a power deficit.

I'm confused as to whats going on, Are Mercedes doing something sneaky or are they just down on pace. 0.451 faster than Mclaren, despite Mclaren having an older PU just doesn't seem right?!

[SiLo]

Red Bull went low downforce so I think it's skewed a bit. Plus the engine benefit really comes in the race, when the cars have DRS is nullified somewhat it seems.

I'm certain most teams would rather start on the medium tyre, its a better race tyre, but it was so close and the track kept getting faster that a lot of them couldnt afford the luxury. Really only Lewis and Bottas could, plus Max flat spotted his set (although I don't think it was much of a flatspot).

[cooken]

Red Bull went low downforce so I think it's skewed a bit. Plus the engine benefit really comes in the race, when the cars have DRS is nullified somewhat it seems.

I'm certain most teams would rather start on the medium tyre, its a better race tyre, but it was so close and the track kept getting faster that a lot of them couldnt afford the luxury. Really only Lewis and Bottas could, plus Max flat spotted his set (although I don't think it was much of a flatspot).

Agreed, I think the engine benefits are mostly in race strats. Less clipping on a per lap basis?