2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[silver]

2022 might well be one long test session for Mercedes, figuring out what went wrong and applying the lessons to the design of the 2023 car. If the budget cap wasn't in place, we probably would have seen Mercedes throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the problem in an attempt to fix the car. Maybe Mercedes need to admit to themselves they got the concept wrong for the new regulations and go from there. It's probably tempting to think if we solve X,Y and Z problems, we'll unlock the car's inherent speed. Which could happen, but it doesn't look likely at the moment.

I am not sure if they have anymore pace in that package that is being made to be believed. It appears due to wind tunnel correlation, they have wrong performance results being shown from a package that on track doesn't show any such performance. I also think they are adamant to run the car lower than where it starts porpoising, which appears to be a practical limit for the car and the fundamental design. If they haven't solved the problem for over 2 months since they first saw the problem, it's probably a severe problem. But even if they solve it, it might become consistent and predictable, but isn't going to be super fast. It would then be a good base to start developing it. But then it shouldn't be a solution that gets affected by adding more downforce to the car.

[holeindalip]

Would it be worth it to just throw the budget cap out the window and take the penalty?

[zibby43]

Very strange what happened to Merc. Lewis matched the ferraris on the first q2 runs and was head and shoulders above the midfield but the pace then disappeared after that and theyre pretty much back to where they were at the first race of the year. Russell basically lost his edge from fp3 on. The car is so inconsistent. They dont seem to be anywhere close to have a good grasp of it. And thats everyone; including drivers and engineers,

Other teams did the usual routine of turning up the pace step by step towards Q3. But for some reason Mercedes went for glory runs with free practice itself by turning all of their pace up, more so with Russell. So they stayed pretty much where they were in FP2.

That’s not what happened at all lol.

Merc’s pace yesterday was genuine.

Whether it was the track rubbering in further, the increase in temps, subtle setup changes, etc., the porpoising returned with a vengeance today and the car was bouncing and sliding through the corners and clattering into the beginnings of the braking zones.

[elMaestro]

Very strange what happened to Merc. Lewis matched the ferraris on the first q2 runs and was head and shoulders above the midfield but the pace then disappeared after that and theyre pretty much back to where they were at the first race of the year. Russell basically lost his edge from fp3 on. The car is so inconsistent. They dont seem to be anywhere close to have a good grasp of it. And thats everyone; including drivers and engineers,

Other teams did the usual routine of turning up the pace step by step towards Q3. But for some reason Mercedes went for glory runs with free practice itself by turning all of their pace up, more so with Russell. So they stayed pretty much where they were in FP2.

That’s not what happened at all lol.

Merc’s pace yesterday was genuine.

Whether it was the track rubbering in further, the increase in temps, subtle setup changes, etc., the porpoising returned with a vengeance today and the car was bouncing and sliding through the corners and clattering into the beginnings of the braking zones.

Exactly. Lewis best time in Q3 was maybe a tenth or two faster than his fastest lap in Q2 which was done in a used set of tyres. But i have to say the car looked horrible in sector 1 and the last corner all day long today.

[Hammerfist]

Very strange what happened to Merc. Lewis matched the ferraris on the first q2 runs and was head and shoulders above the midfield but the pace then disappeared after that and theyre pretty much back to where they were at the first race of the year. Russell basically lost his edge from fp3 on. The car is so inconsistent. They dont seem to be anywhere close to have a good grasp of it. And thats everyone; including drivers and engineers,

Other teams did the usual routine of turning up the pace step by step towards Q3. But for some reason Mercedes went for glory runs with free practice itself by turning all of their pace up, more so with Russell. So they stayed pretty much where they were in FP2.

I don't think that's what happened. Russell sounded dumbfounded that he was slower than he was in FP2. Hamilton momentarily was close to the Ferraris in Q2, then finished a second off. The car finds and loses pace as it pleases and they really have no idea why it happens.

[Sevach]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/russ ... /10301157/

Russell says his car had the same setup as friday in Qualy which makes things even harder to understand.

[chrisc90]

They did not give russel possibility ti try one more lap to secure qualification, so that hamilton would not risk to underperform again against the public and supporters. It was useless maneuvre, since lewis did good job..... sad

He ran out of time didnt he? Wouldnt have had time to pit for a fresh set of boots and make it round.

[Stu]

Would it be worth it to just throw the budget cap out the window and take the penalty?

Not really an option; the last time a team were disqualified from constructors championship it resulted in Mercedes becoming very, very unhappy with the team in question (and a huge fine); that team have took ten years to recover (and are still not really back to where they were at that point)….

Disqualification would be the only real punishment available to the FIA for a flagrant breach of any of the caps; it could only be interpreted as cheating.

[Tvetovnato]

They did not give russel possibility ti try one more lap to secure qualification, so that hamilton would not risk to underperform again against the public and supporters. It was useless maneuvre, since lewis did good job..... sad

And they paid Russell to keep quiet about it on the team radio and afterwards in the interviews right? And if he didn’t, he would be replaced by Toto’s nephew’s sister’s brother’s son before the race today?
Because it cannot possibly have had anything to do with the car being terrible?

I wish I would believe that you are trolling with a comment like that, but something unfortunately tells me that you are serious.

[mstar]

Both cars looked bad in qualy. It wasn't just Georges was worse, i was on board with lewis and in S1 it seems a real handfull, same with S2. How lewis got into 6th i don't know as both drivers are very evenly matched.

I really don't know if the upgrades made a difference or not, by the sound of qualy -not. I can only hope lewis can get ahead of Bottas at the start as bottas has a VERY fast car on straights and corners onto straights they have very good acceleration from corners onto the straights.

[Swed3120]

Anyone else see a direct link between 2021 and 2022, I’m not talking even remotely about the title fight , more in terms of the areas of the car specific teams seem to have problems with.

In 2021, both AM and merc had isssues with their floors , and again this year it is merc and Aston that suffer the most from bouncing - an issue inherent to the floor design.

I’m well aware that bouncing and last years sealing issues are only tenuously linked but might it point towards an area merc needs to look at more deeply

With my tin hat on I’d be asking who left the merc aero team during the 2019/2020 season and where exactly their area of experience was

[chrisc90]

Just seen on the Miami thread about the ride height and front end grip to get to the corners after raising it up.... Are the Merc cars running a little bit of rake or are they doing their normal 'flat/level' setup?

[AA_2019]

Lewis needs to smarten up with VSC / SC situations.
Has he learnt nothing after last year?
He should have pitted for softs when he had the chance.
Russell was always going to overtake with fresher tyres so going behind him on softs (or even mediums) would have given him a chance of a better outcome.

George is smart, when they wanted to pit him earlier in the race, he said why don't we stay out in case there is a VSC / SC. Not sure if Lewis would ever say something like that.

[GrizzleBoy]

Lewis needs to smarten up with VSC / SC situations.
Has he learnt nothing after last year?
He should have pitted for softs when he had the chance.
Russell was always going to overtake with fresher tyres so going behind him on softs would have given him a chance of a better outcome.

I don't see why Merc pitwall didn't tell him he needs to pit though instead of asking him as he doesn't know what's happening anywhere but his own car.

[proteus]

Lewis needs to smarten up with VSC / SC situations.
Has he learnt nothing after last year?
He should have pitted for softs when he had the chance.
Russell was always going to overtake with fresher tyres so going behind him on softs would have given him a chance of a better outcome.

I don't see why Merc pitwall didn't tell him he needs to pit though instead of asking him as he doesn't know what's happening anywhere but his own car.

In the radio conversations George was adamant to gamble for a late VSC/safety car, while Lewis seemed a bit lost about what to do. But we need the full radio transcript to put it into perspective, it is much too soon to draw the conclusions out of a small part of radio chatter.