2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[f1jcw]

Lewis told Bono that his tires were fine. They even had Lewis's tires in the pitlane to check the wear which would have presumably have shown little wear considering RB's message to Verstappen about his softs that came off looking absolutely fine.

In my opinion, George getting denied has more to do with not wanting to hand him a strat advantage after they already screwed up Lewis's race.

Immediately after getting the hard tyres Lewis asked Bonno why did qe change to hard, and Bonna replied that they saw a drop-off at the end of the medium stint.
Meaning that they expected Max's mediums to drop-off too. Unfortunately no such thing happened to the RedBull.

The data doesn't support what Bono said though..

I think everyone outside of Merc is asking that same question and not for the first time

[PlatinumZealot]

The Mercedes engineers saw something we cannot see is what I am saying. I didn't say their judgement was right. It was obviously rubbish.

I expected them to take advantage of the medium and run an additional fifteen laps or so as the track rubbered in.

[f1jcw]

The Mercedes engineers saw something we cannot see is what I am saying. I didn't say their judgement was right. It was obviously rubbish.

I expected them to take advantage of the medium and run an additional fifteen laps or so as the track rubbered in.

How many times have we said this exact same thing though, if it was a one off, fine, but it happens time and time again we have seen Merc take a long running tyre and pit early, wasting the advantage of starting on that tyre, wasting the opportunity to start on the fastest tyre or even go onto the later tyre as they then switch to the hardest tyre.

I could understand if Merc was burning through tyres like in 2013, but that isn’t the case.

It is unfathomable

How Lewis hasn’t called a meeting and asked wtf are you doing

[PlatinumZealot]

They rely on their computers too much and the race is right in front of them. I'm almost sure a fifteen year old could read the race reactively and do a better job than he Mercedes strategy team with their advanced "foresight" simulations.

[214270]

They rely on their computers too much and the race is right in front of them. I'm almost sure a fifteen year old could read the race reactively and do a better job than he Mercedes strategy team with their advanced "foresight" simulations.

They relied on feedback & RUS is poor at giving it. Contrary to popular opinion RUS was on the ideal tyre strategy, the only error being they should’ve brought him in sooner to jump PER who had the bad stop. It was a mistake attributing an ability to sip tyre life & be frugal to him, he’s not shown that skill yet and shouldn’t have been the one going long. LiCo was early on his car in an effort to save brakes & fuel; he also radio’d-in about tyre temps & not being able to ‘take much more’ within a few laps of HAM pitting. He played his part in Merc believing the tyre wouldn’t last.

[Vanja #66]

They rely on their computers too much and the race is right in front of them. I'm almost sure a fifteen year old could read the race reactively and do a better job than he Mercedes strategy team with their advanced "foresight" simulations.

I don't think they could have done a better race with that kind of car setup. They simply use harder compounds better and often eat through softer ones. I have no idea if Merc could have set the car up in a different way during FPs and Q, but what they had on race day was not set up for soft-medium strategy.

[mendis]

They rely on their computers too much and the race is right in front of them. I'm almost sure a fifteen year old could read the race reactively and do a better job than he Mercedes strategy team with their advanced "foresight" simulations.

I don't think they could have done a better race with that kind of car setup. They simply use harder compounds better and often eat through softer ones. I have no idea if Merc could have set the car up in a different way during FPs and Q, but what they had on race day was not set up for soft-medium strategy.

It was actually other way round. Up until US GP upgrade, they had difficulty in firing up tyres which was a problem in qualifying, more so in cooler conditions. Hence, it's either warmer conditions or softest range of compounds that was the strength. Because they couldn't fire up the tyres, it was an advantage in races as they had greater tyre life which allowed then to start challenging Ferrari once TD039 came in. For a car like W13, harder tyres was never a great option. With that kind of background, going for hards was never a great idea. Ferrari doing is understandable as they have been suffering with tyre life since Hungary (the rumor was, they started complying to TD039 from Hungary).

[PlatinumZealot]

This. The car was visibly sliding on the hards and both were complaining about grip level.
Russell'a proposal was a good idea... Good for Hamilton but not for Russell! I think he was too far back to have a chance of winning.

[Hammerfist]

Lewis told Bono that his tires were fine. They even had Lewis's tires in the pitlane to check the wear which would have presumably have shown little wear considering RB's message to Verstappen about his softs that came off looking absolutely fine.

In my opinion, George getting denied has more to do with not wanting to hand him a strat advantage after they already screwed up Lewis's race.

Immediately after getting the hard tyres Lewis asked Bonno why did qe change to hard, and Bonna replied that they saw a drop-off at the end of the medium stint.
Meaning that they expected Max's mediums to drop-off too. Unfortunately no such thing happened to the RedBull.

Too many times this year and last they start on the longer wearing tyres, still have good pace on them and then switch early.
I just don’t get it. They might as well have started on softs this weekend.

Yeah they really need to adjust their mindset in the pitwall. There is not enough agressiveness in their chosen strategies. I think they overreacted to perez pitting and undercutting. Clearly they should have left lewis out imo. Let him go as long as possible and then bolt on the softs. After seeing what Ricciardo did that was definitely the best strategy. There was only a 5kph difference between Merc and rbr in Mexico so i dont know why they thought they wouldnt be able to overtake with drs and a massive tire advantage. This was a winnable race. Just another one they fudged up imho.

[MadMax]

Immediately after getting the hard tyres Lewis asked Bonno why did qe change to hard, and Bonna replied that they saw a drop-off at the end of the medium stint.
Meaning that they expected Max's mediums to drop-off too. Unfortunately no such thing happened to the RedBull.

Too many times this year and last they start on the longer wearing tyres, still have good pace on them and then switch early.
I just don’t get it. They might as well have started on softs this weekend.

Yeah they really need to adjust their mindset in the pitwall. There is not enough agressiveness in their chosen strategies. I think they overreacted to perez pitting and undercutting. Clearly they should have left lewis out imo. Let him go as long as possible and then bolt on the softs. After seeing what Ricciardo did that was definitely the best strategy. There was only a 5kph difference between Merc and rbr in Mexico so i dont know why they thought they wouldnt be able to overtake with drs and a massive tire advantage. This was a winnable race. Just another one they fudged up imho.

Isn't that a classic case of hindsight? At the point when Mercedes were making their decisions, Ricciardo was still tooling around on his original tyre.

[organic]

Too many times this year and last they start on the longer wearing tyres, still have good pace on them and then switch early.
I just don’t get it. They might as well have started on softs this weekend.

Yeah they really need to adjust their mindset in the pitwall. There is not enough agressiveness in their chosen strategies. I think they overreacted to perez pitting and undercutting. Clearly they should have left lewis out imo. Let him go as long as possible and then bolt on the softs. After seeing what Ricciardo did that was definitely the best strategy. There was only a 5kph difference between Merc and rbr in Mexico so i dont know why they thought they wouldnt be able to overtake with drs and a massive tire advantage. This was a winnable race. Just another one they fudged up imho.

Isn't that a classic case of hindsight? At the point when Mercedes were making their decisions, Ricciardo was still tooling around on his original tyre.

they could see vettel doing over 30 laps on softs, max almost 30, perez over 25 and maybe assume their prediction of 16 laps of soft life was underestimated, and that deg is much lower than expected

[littlebigcat]

What is mad to me is that Hamilton was told +6 laps on strategy, but only pitted a few laps after Verstappen. There was definitely a rapid change of mind.

[AR3-GP]

What is mad to me is that Hamilton was told +6 laps on strategy, but only pitted a few laps after Verstappen. There was definitely a rapid change of mind.

They say it's because Perez would have undercut them otherwise. In hindsight it's understandable that they worried they would have the straight-line speed to pass Perez. Perez has been very hard to overtake in the last two seasons.

[Mansell89]

https://twitter.com/SmilexTech/status/1 ... 9kiCQPIxEg


"Brief chat with a Mercedes technician who made me understand how they risked 2023 to try to understand a design that, at one point, they believed was simply wrong. Confirmation that TD39 helped them."

So intrigued to see how they approach next season.

It’s one thing getting this design in its optimum, it’s another deciding whether it’s the development path to compete with Red Bull.

[chrisc90]

There must be some confidence in the design given that they are still bringing upgrades to the car. (front wing for example). I know that a few curved pieces of carbon probably dont cost a great deal, but there must have been some careful design and CFD runs to work out exactly where they needed to be.