Dr. Acula wrote: ↑20 Mar 2022, 18:16
jz11 wrote: ↑20 Mar 2022, 18:06
with DRS Lewis could barely get along side Alpha Tauri after the straight, so they definitely have issues on the PU side, as was evident after testing, and fixing porposing meant lower downforce over all (I suspect they raised the car to not get into the resonance window), and hence they thought the hard tire will work out better instead of mediums, softer tyres would simply burn up for them
but overall it doesn't seem yet that they have some fatal problems that would ruin the season, we can't guess right now how the car will work once they sort these things out, I'd expect it will be quite quick
and we also don't know how much development potential there is in the other design philosophies, it is entirely possible that this is close to all there is in the Ferrari and RB design, but Merc have much more to come from theirs, they aren't that far back IMO for a car that is "half broken"
edit: and lets not forget McLaren and AM both on the "weak" Merc PUs, so I'm guessing those 2 will bounce back once Merc fix their engine for this new fuel
Depends. Don't forget they can't just throw money and man-hours at a problem anymore like they could 2018 for instance. They have limited CFD and Windtunnel time and also a limited budget. So if they should find out that they can't solve the problems within a certain timeframe, i believe they will simply throw the towel for this season and go for the next season early.
The difference between the front teams in cfd and wind tunnel time isn’t that much.
Also, Merc doesn’t need to burn the engine down to maintain comfortable 5-6th.
Engines are so hard to judge. 1 race / 1 engine is different because you don’t need to save any of it, that isn’t the case now.