2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[mendis]

It seems like the difficulties of correlation between track and different tools back in factory are continuing.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vers ... /10381418/

Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott echoed Russell's comments, saying the simulations indicated the team would perform better than it did in qualifying.

[iRacer]

As expected today really, just losing so much time in S3. Hamilton really bossing Q over Russell now. Think that’s 8-2 to Lewis over the 10 races.

Hopefully Alonso doesn’t jump Lewis at the start tomorrow, otherwise it could be a long race.

It helps if Russell can keep his mouth shut and work more. Lewis is continuing to prove his worth now that the car is more predictable. Russell would be counted out of the young top 4 if he keeps getting beaten so convincingly like this.

What do you mean keep his mouth shut?

[Hammerfist]

They also gambled on a high downforce setup. If it rains they might be the car to have in the race.
Suzuka was always going to be tough. From the spoon section to the chicane it’s essentially a straight line in the dry. I suspect this is where they are losing most of their time.

[AR3-GP]

They also gambled on a high downforce setup. If it rains they might be the car to have in the race.
Suzuka was always going to be tough. From the spoon section to the chicane it’s essentially a straight line in the dry. I suspect this is where they are losing most of their time.

From what I'm reading, they didn't gamble on a high downforce set up for rain. The Merc engineers expected a dry race which is why they ran 3 sets of inters on Friday.

The reason for the high downforce wing was explained as more a correlation thing. If it benefits them tomorrow, it will be happenstance.

[chrisc90]

They also gambled on a high downforce setup. If it rains they might be the car to have in the race.
Suzuka was always going to be tough. From the spoon section to the chicane it’s essentially a straight line in the dry. I suspect this is where they are losing most of their time.

From what I'm reading, they didn't gamble on a high downforce set up for rain. The Merc engineers expected a dry race which is why they ran 3 sets of inters on Friday.

The reason for the high downforce wing was explained as more a correlation thing. If it benefits them tomorrow, it will be happenstance.

Courtesy of Search:

Not sure how that would translate into the race. If the race is a 2 stopper, they have plenty tyres left

[PlatinumZealot]

The car is wearing the tyres too much so they added more wing to prevent that. It should pay off if the strategy is marginal two stop and Mercedes alone are able to one stop.

[AR3-GP]

The car is wearing the tyres too much so they added more wing to prevent that. It should pay off if the strategy is marginal two stop and Mercedes alone are able to one stop.

Wet race will be safety cars and red flags fest.

[atanatizante]

Now they have in their pocket the 3rd place on WCC, I wonder why they are not focused on what RB18 successfully did since Baku: increase the rake of the car and add some furniture in order to better seal the edges of the floor! What they have to loose on the remaining 4 races had they'll do some experiments down the road?

[Hammerfist]

They also gambled on a high downforce setup. If it rains they might be the car to have in the race.
Suzuka was always going to be tough. From the spoon section to the chicane it’s essentially a straight line in the dry. I suspect this is where they are losing most of their time.

From what I'm reading, they didn't gamble on a high downforce set up for rain. The Merc engineers expected a dry race which is why they ran 3 sets of inters on Friday.

The reason for the high downforce wing was explained as more a correlation thing. If it benefits them tomorrow, it will be happenstance.

Strange.

This article links the high df setup to the possibility it might rain
https://www.racefans.net/2022/10/08/ham ... s-deficit/

I struggle to understand why they thought theyd be closer. I could have told them a month ago that suzuka would be bad for them. Any track where aero efficiency is important they are usually over a second off. And lets face it; if Max nails his final lap today they’d be over a sec off again.

Also i doubt that they went high df simply to preserve tires. If its one thing they don’t struggle with this year it is tire wear.

[atanatizante]

The car is wearing the tyres too much so they added more wing to prevent that. It should pay off if the strategy is marginal two stop and Mercedes alone are able to one stop.

In FP2 at a wet track both RB and Ferrari run the same top speed in S2 like Merc cars did, somewhere in the region of 294-297 kph but then in qualy the first 2 teams were some 8-10 kph faster with both Merc cars sporting the same FP2 top speeds... so they choose to protect the tyres in order to do longer stints hence 1 stop less then the orders or just bet on a wet race tomorrow... either way it seems a wise thing to do, doesn't it?

[PlatinumZealot]

Yes. If you lack pace focus on longevity and strategy.

[214270]

No power/parachute wing - take your pick of racecar issues that blighted the race. Also, wet running isn’t any kind of real chance; DRS is needed to affect a pass to get into the top positions. Race directors don’t seem keen to allow it, so the race is stunted.

[erudite450]

Why are Mercedes so f-ing risk-averse? The should have pitted Hamilton after a few laps behind Ocon. If Alonso had pitted 2 laps earlier, he would have gotten past Hamilton and Ocon.

[Stu]

I did wonder about that, maybe the radio chatter was meant to tempt Alpine into pitting. LH was plainly faster, but unable to pass.

[Sieper]

Agree, good try. Lewis was much faster everywhere, except on the straight, no matter how close behind he started the run, the Alpine just rode away. Otherwise getting passed would only happen if Ocon’s tires gave up before Lewis’.