2022 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[pursue_one's]

[AR3-GP]

George Russell's perspective on the early seasons experiments of Hamilton:
https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1018065/1 ... xperiments

He says that each driver alternated the development parts from one weekend to another. He says that Hamilton's experiments primarily revolved around his own setups and that the reason George did not make as many "experimental" changes to his setups was because he was more comfortable with the car than Hamilton was. Hamilton was making changes to make the car suit him more.

"For sure, at the start of the year, Lewis made more drastic set-up changes within the confines of the car, but that was purely because I was in a happier place and he was still trying to find the set-up that suited him. “But when it came to development, it would always get alternated from one week to the next. And that’s how it always is, we are on equal terms here.

“Whenever there was a development item, it does disrupt your race weekend. That’s why it’s always fair - that’s why the team always do it one week with Lewis, one week with me. And we’re still doing that now, for what it’s worth.”

I guess George isn't too happy with the narrative that Hamilton did all the work and that George's early season advantage wasn't down to his own ability to adapt to the new car better than Hamilton did.

[jordanb]

George Russell's perspective on the early seasons experiments of Hamilton:
https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1018065/1 ... xperiments

He says that each driver alternated the development parts from one weekend to another. He says that Hamilton's experiments primarily revolved around his own setups and that the reason George did not make as many "experimental" changes to his setups was because he was more comfortable with the car than Hamilton was. Hamilton was making changes to make the car suit him more.

"For sure, at the start of the year, Lewis made more drastic set-up changes within the confines of the car, but that was purely because I was in a happier place and he was still trying to find the set-up that suited him. “But when it came to development, it would always get alternated from one week to the next. And that’s how it always is, we are on equal terms here.

“Whenever there was a development item, it does disrupt your race weekend. That’s why it’s always fair - that’s why the team always do it one week with Lewis, one week with me. And we’re still doing that now, for what it’s worth.”

I guess George isn't too happy with the narrative that Hamilton did all the work and that George's early season advantage wasn't down to his own ability to adapt to the new car better than Hamilton did.

It makes sense for George to be more explicit about it as the current narrative puts his work to shade.

[chrisc90]

Maybe we can look at the points on a ‘equal’ way then rather the writing off half a seasons for ‘development’ for Lewis

[Stu]

Stop!!

[SiLo]

Russell looked more comfortable with bouncing to me in the first part of the season.

[georgekyr]

George is younger and eager to do what it takes to become champion. No matter how well you train, the age difference is real and physical boundaries differ no matter between George and Lewis. As such I believe that in the first half of the season George tried settings towards the physically challenging since they all knew that those setups were providing better performance. On the other hand, Lewis tried to really improve the design deficiencies of the concept and worked closer with the mechanics. Also, working for so many years with the same (much or less) mechanics, you develop common vocabulary and facilitate communication speeding up overall work. It is a no brainer that the team from their side most probably put more effort on working with Lewis to understand better W13 since that spared time and effort overall and left the more easily implementable tests to George.

[harty71]

George Russell's perspective on the early seasons experiments of Hamilton:
https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1018065/1 ... xperiments

He says that each driver alternated the development parts from one weekend to another. He says that Hamilton's experiments primarily revolved around his own setups and that the reason George did not make as many "experimental" changes to his setups was because he was more comfortable with the car than Hamilton was. Hamilton was making changes to make the car suit him more.

"For sure, at the start of the year, Lewis made more drastic set-up changes within the confines of the car, but that was purely because I was in a happier place and he was still trying to find the set-up that suited him. “But when it came to development, it would always get alternated from one week to the next. And that’s how it always is, we are on equal terms here.

“Whenever there was a development item, it does disrupt your race weekend. That’s why it’s always fair - that’s why the team always do it one week with Lewis, one week with me. And we’re still doing that now, for what it’s worth.”

I guess George isn't too happy with the narrative that Hamilton did all the work and that George's early season advantage wasn't down to his own ability to adapt to the new car better than Hamilton did.

Just as I said and thought all along, it's a myth pushed by Hamilton fanatics to try and find an excuse for Russell beating Hamilton, Hamilton doesn't help matters because he hints at it as well.

It's reminding me a lot like 2011, the excuses were that he was going through a difficult time in the team and in his life but he won't tell us what.

Let's just accept that Russell is a great driver and has the ability to beat Hamilton, it's down to Hamilton to prove to us that last season was an outlier.

[PhillipM]

It's reminding me a lot like 2011, the excuses were that he was going through a difficult time in the team and in his life but he won't tell us what.

You mean apart from breaking up with his partner and a friend passing away?

[harty71]

It's reminding me a lot like 2011, the excuses were that he was going through a difficult time in the team and in his life but he won't tell us what.

Don't other drivers ever go through these events? Didn't a certain Schumacher win a race the day after one of his parents passed away?

I don't think these sort of things really have a bearing on how you perform once you are strapped in and in charge of a flying machine, negative thoughts soon leave your head once you are experiencing sensations that a F1 car brings.

You mean apart from breaking up with his partner and a friend passing away?

[harty71]

Russell has rightly set the record straight, he defeated Hamilton fair & square in a car that was difficult to get to grips with in the early part of the season.

I believe Hamilton struggled more relative to Russell because the porpoising fudged up his braking excellence, seeing as though this is probably his strongest trait in driving ability it hurt him more than Russell. That's on him though, you have to adapt to the machiney you've got, he doesn't get a free pass for it.

[Mchamilton]

Russell has rightly set the record straight, he defeated Hamilton fair & square in a car that was difficult to get to grips with in the early part of the season.

I believe Hamilton struggled more relative to Russell because the porpoising fudged up his braking excellence, seeing as though this is probably his strongest trait in driving ability it hurt him more than Russell. That's on him though, you have to adapt to the machiney you've got, he doesn't get a free pass for it.

Fair n square..except the 2 podiums that he lucked into with the safety car

[harty71]

Russell has rightly set the record straight, he defeated Hamilton fair & square in a car that was difficult to get to grips with in the early part of the season.

I believe Hamilton struggled more relative to Russell because the porpoising fudged up his braking excellence, seeing as though this is probably his strongest trait in driving ability it hurt him more than Russell. That's on him though, you have to adapt to the machiney you've got, he doesn't get a free pass for it.

Fair n square..except the 2 podiums that he lucked into with the safety car

So fair & square then, it's not Russell's fault that Hamilton didn't have the sense to pit during one of those occasions, and, do you think two podiums would have overturned the points gap, no, thought as much.

[Mchamilton]

Russell has rightly set the record straight, he defeated Hamilton fair & square in a car that was difficult to get to grips with in the early part of the season.

I believe Hamilton struggled more relative to Russell because the porpoising fudged up his braking excellence, seeing as though this is probably his strongest trait in driving ability it hurt him more than Russell. That's on him though, you have to adapt to the machiney you've got, he doesn't get a free pass for it.

Fair n square..except the 2 podiums that he lucked into with the safety car

So fair & square then, it's not Russell's fault that Hamilton didn't have the sense to pit during one of those occasions, and, do you think two podiums would have overturned the points gap, no, thought as much.

Oh yeah I forgot it's entirely the drivers decision to pit or not isn't it.

[harty71]

Fair n square..except the 2 podiums that he lucked into with the safety car

So fair & square then, it's not Russell's fault that Hamilton didn't have the sense to pit during one of those occasions, and, do you think two podiums would have overturned the points gap, no, thought as much.

Oh yeah I forgot it's entirely the drivers decision to pit or not isn't it.

It was entirely Russell's wasn't it, race strategy awareness is part of a drivers arsenal, Russell is first class in that department.