2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[chrisc90]

Mercedes is a close second to the Ferrari pitwall when it comes to screwing strategies. What a mess. Lewis was right to be furious.

Was he right to call out his whole team for what they did, yet he spent all of last week calling Alonso out for his comments over the radio last week? But then Lewis does the same thing to whole team this week? Not a very good look really.

[PlatinumZealot]

Christian Horner said he too was surprised to see Mercedes pitting George when he should have been Lewis's rear gunner. That was a selfish move by George and the team backed it. That's how he got use to pass Hamilton.. with fresh faster tires

It's Jenson Button all over again and I predicted this sort of behaviour of "getting one over on Lewis" to be the focus of the team next year.

[saviour stivala]

Whatever the tyre they were on 33 was going to win the race. With 44 on 8 laps old tyre the team couldn’t have done it different.

[CHT]

Why didn't they pit Lewis during the safety car? They could have told George to stay 10 cars behind, they had Albon in between Lewis and George too, and then he could pit and stay ahead of Max.

Poor restart by Lewis though, he should have waited to go at the start finish line as car behind must stay behind rear wing of car in front now.

Yeah I didn't understand why Lewis went so early on the restart. It's like he gave up already. But Max would have gotten him sooner or later. That much is clear. Lewis needs to think for himself more and force strategy like George has been doing. Once you see Max behind on softer tires, surely you don't want to be on a harder compound. He is relying on the Merc pitwall too much, a pitwall which has cost him some races last year so it surely ain't the best.

The reason why George is doing a better job than 7xWC is not due to luck, it is simply down to him paying more attention to details and constantly thinking ahead of his WC teammate. Simply put GR is more focused on being F1 driver, while LH's focus is F1 celebrity.

Maybe LH's mind is too caught up thinking about what he is going to wear, that he has to rely on the pit wall to think and make all the decisions for him.

The last time LH uses an F word, he got one back from the pitwall. But now, being a F1 superstar, Toto has to apologise for forcing the F word out of Lewis mouth. https://www.crash.net/f1/news/59566/1/h ... ing-swivel

[mendis]

Christian Horner said he too was surprised to see Mercedes pitting George when he should have been Lewis's rear gunner. That was a selfish move by George and the team backed it. That's how he got use to pass Hamilton.. with fresh faster tires

It's Jenson Button all over again and I predicted this sort of behaviour of "getting one over on Lewis" to be the focus of the team next year.

George did what a good thinking driver does. He saw that the medium tyres went very cold behind SC. He was aware of Mercedes' inability to instantly heat up the tyres and made a call to switch to softs. Lewis could have done that too, but he was never that quick thinking under such circumstances. George's decision proved to be right.

Anyone thinking George should have been left a rear gunner, are forgetting he would have been an easy meat for Max and it would have taken a couple of more laps to him clear Lewis. George's quick thinking gave atleast 2nd place. Otherwise Charles would have taken 2nd with Lewis 3rd and George 4th.

[PlatinumZealot]

Quick thinking? It is a no brainer to go for softs with a late safety car. What George did was dash away what was seen as the only chance of a team win to satisfy his own selfish desires.

[napoleon1981]

Yeah I didn't understand why Lewis went so early on the restart. It's like he gave up already. But Max would have gotten him sooner or later. That much is clear. Lewis needs to think for himself more and force strategy like George has been doing. Once you see Max behind on softer tires, surely you don't want to be on a harder compound. He is relying on the Merc pitwall too much, a pitwall which has cost him some races last year so it surely ain't the best.

He went early to get the jump/catch Max Napping. It obviously didn't work, but the only other option was to leave it to the finish line, which is much riskier.

I did suspect that maybe he was baiting Max to pass him before the line.
These two drivers are the craftiest ever and consider things we only think of later.

That would be a Lewis move. There is some onboard with Max lifting to avoid passing Lewis. I would be interested to see the Lewis throttle trace. The speed differential was unusually high quite sudden with Max pulling out of the draft early. I suspect Lewis lifted as well to draw Max in an error.

[e30ernest]

He went early to get the jump/catch Max Napping. It obviously didn't work, but the only other option was to leave it to the finish line, which is much riskier.

I did suspect that maybe he was baiting Max to pass him before the line.
These two drivers are the craftiest ever and consider things we only think of later.

That would be a Lewis move. There is some onboard with Max lifting to avoid passing Lewis. I would be interested to see the Lewis throttle trace. The speed differential was unusually high quite sudden with Max pulling out of the draft early. I suspect Lewis lifted as well to draw Max in an error.

Someone posted the telemetry on the race thread. Lewis was flat out on the throttle on the restart. Max was just that much faster on the straight.

[mendis]

Quick thinking? It is a no brainer to go for softs with a late safety car. What George did was dash away what was seen as the only chance of a team win to satisfy his own selfish desires.

I understand a Lewis fan feeling a win was possible in those circumstances, but rationality suggests otherwise. Credit to George for that move that gave better team result than without it.

[e30ernest]

A win may have been possible if it was Lewis that pitted, and George that stayed out. Because then George can slow Max down for Lewis to have a (remote) chance to pass. Even then, I do not see a better result than 2nd and 4th with the way the safety cars came out.

Maybe they could have gotten 2 and 3 if they double stacked on the safety car with George holding the max 10 car lengths to buy time.

[Watto]

Mercedes is a close second to the Ferrari pitwall when it comes to screwing strategies. What a mess. Lewis was right to be furious.

Was he right to call out his whole team for what they did, yet he spent all of last week calling Alonso out for his comments over the radio last week? But then Lewis does the same thing to whole team this week? Not a very good look really.

Honestly I think people make too much of some of the team radio (yeah that includes Lewis on Alonsos comment) often a way for drivers to vent and team often settle them, Lewis 'thats dangerous driving' Max getting agitated over things.

He settled well post race, probably holding some things back, but had time to reflect too

[SparkyAMG]

Quick thinking? It is a no brainer to go for softs with a late safety car. What George did was dash away what was seen as the only chance of a team win to satisfy his own selfish desires.

I'm as biased a Lewis fan as they come and can let my opinions be blinded by that sometimes, but George coming in saved the team a 2nd place given the team had decided to risk keeping Lewis on the mediums. Had they done the same with George they'd have both been picked off by Max and Leclerc.

The team should have known better than to risk it given the car's warm up issues, and quite honestly Lewis should have been on the radio demanding softs himself.

[Cs98]

Pitting for softs was obviously the right call by George. They should have pitted both and secured a 2-3.

George may have sealed the intra-team battle at Merc now.

[SparkyAMG]

Of course, George had nothing to lose so in his case it was an easy decision rather than an inspired one, but I don't know how many times we need to see late safety cars for the team to learn that softs are always the right option, especially with that many laps left.

[chrisc90]

I wonder at which point Mercedes’ will prioritise George in the WDC?
30p ahead of Lewis and 13 points off second place.