Hammerfist wrote: ↑01 Apr 2022, 00:26
But if we are going to say that the reason behind Mercedes's struggle is because they spent too much time for the championship last year, then how come Redbull, whcih definitely spent even more resources on last year's effort was still able to build a great car this year? To me that line of thinking is quite rubbish. If I am going to criticize Merc, I will say that they should have been even more agressive last year with development and put the championship away sooner with no chance for Masi to do anything fishy and alter the result in the last race. Merc had another double championship in their grasp last year and they chose to ignore it for the unknown. That should be the lesson learned from this whole ordeal.
On the evidence of last year's car and this year's, it's becoming more apparent that Mercedes isn't getting their concepts right to start the year with. While last year they caught up over the year and competed, this year they are quite far away to start with. Same can be said of their power units. Unlike the car, the power unit development is frozen (ICE). If that evidence is anything to go by, then your statement that, they should have been more aggressive last year with development, fails to resonate well.
Verstappen suffering a number of DNFs had more to do with Hamilton having had a chance until late season than Mercedes aggressively developing the car. They also took a lot of engine penalties to start using the aggressive power modes with shorter engine life. In short, there are a number of reasons why they stood a chance last season other than chassis development.
Consider the fact that they are still not clear where the porpoising problem is emanating from even after a month of half since witnessing it first, which adds up to a thought that somewhere over the past few years, they have been consistently losing the brilliance of the yore. That probably is the reason why Red Bull has come out of with a relatively better car this year (obviously they get the credit for the good job), despite having mounted a season long aggressive championship challenge. I don't know if that is complacency, lack of motivation or just the budget cap that is the reason why Mercedes has started to get into problems. It's important from F1's POV that they stay at the sharp end and compete.