2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[organic]

I don't think it is a rumour when Toto Wolff said, but ok.

Until there is a quote from reliable sources it's difficult to treat anything as fact

And even when someone from a team says something, it must pass the usual "might they be lying?" scrutiny

But this is from AMUS
Mercedes has already run an evolution of its concept in the wind tunnel. The model has a modified sidepod.
This is not a plan B in the event that you can't get closer to Red Bull with the mini side boxes.
Simply evaluate what is the most promising concept.
But it is also said that the wind tunnel Mercedes is closer in design to Red Bull's solution
https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... onauftakt/

They have reported many things that turn out to be half-truths spun into something bigger. It's still rumour even from AMuS to be honest

Go through the rb18 AMuS articles from last year for instance, and you'd be led to believe that the rb18 was 50kg overweight at the start of the season, judging by how often and how large the weight reductions AMuS reported were happening

[prox]

The only thing I have heard from Toto and it was televised is that they are hiding a little bit of perfomance at the moment.

[De Jokke]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/182781/w ... lance.html

[f1jcw]

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/182781/w ... lance.html

Has already said they went in the wrong setup this morning.
Making something out of nothing.

Not sure it is a good site, when you get comments on articles usually pretty foul

[organic]

here is a quote from Russell

Russell spoke in more detail about the W14: "We are struggling a bit with the balance. Especially in the middle of the corner we slide a lot, overheating the tyres. In general however we are where we expected to be at this stage of the year."

[De Jokke]

here is a quote from Russell

Russell spoke in more detail about the W14: "We are struggling a bit with the balance. Especially in the middle of the corner we slide a lot, overheating the tyres. In general however we are where we expected to be at this stage of the year."

well at least correlation is working

[De Jokke]

https://racingnews365.com/russell-belie ... -for-title

That B-spec must be delivering the goods then (atleast in the wind tunnel)

Atleast there is correlation this year, so a base to develop from instead of shooting in the dark like last year. They are now identifying/confirming the weak spots of the car due to testing and can develop (hopefully rapidly) from there.

[AR3-GP]

here is a quote from Russell

Russell spoke in more detail about the W14: "We are struggling a bit with the balance. Especially in the middle of the corner we slide a lot, overheating the tyres. In general however we are where we expected to be at this stage of the year."

They are heavily hinting that they are behind at the moment. There was a post that suggested could still be 6 tenths missing.

[De Jokke]

I'm not bothered by the times, just hope they can get all the data they need in order to get a clear picture of the car's characteristics, so that they can develop it into the right direction. For now, reliability is spot on , let's hope that box is checked atleast!

[AR3-GP]

I'm not bothered by the times, just hope they can get all the data they need in order to get a clear picture of the car's characteristics, so that they can develop it into the right direction. For now, reliability is spot on , let's hope that box is checked atleast!

The challenge will be outdeveloping the other teams. Perhaps the extra windtunnel time will be an advantage.

[mkay]

History has shown that ensuring correlation with simulations is of paramount importance. We saw it last year with the W13 and in years prior with RB having correlation issues with some of their chassis (I am thinking 2018-2019 in particular, if my memory is correct).

If the team is confident they can win races, then it means whatever development they have in the pipeline should produce the expected results, again assuming correlation is there.

6 tenths gap would mean that they basically neither gain nor lost time to RB over the winter.

[AR3-GP]

History has shown that ensuring correlation with simulations is of paramount importance. We saw it last year with the W13 and in years prior with RB having correlation issues with some of their chassis (I am thinking 2018-2019 in particular, if my memory is correct).

If the team is confident they can win races, then it means whatever development they have in the pipeline should produce the expected results, again assuming correlation is there.

The problem is we saw the same types of hopeful comments last year. That "the next upgrade" and "they'll be back". It never really materialized. Especially not in the beginning of the season.

[mkay]

History has shown that ensuring correlation with simulations is of paramount importance. We saw it last year with the W13 and in years prior with RB having correlation issues with some of their chassis (I am thinking 2018-2019 in particular, if my memory is correct).

If the team is confident they can win races, then it means whatever development they have in the pipeline should produce the expected results, again assuming correlation is there.

The problem is we saw the same types of hopeful comments last year. That "the next upgrade" and "they'll be back". It never really materialized. Especially not in the beginning of the season.

The issue last year was that the chassis had fundamental issues and that they spend 1/2 of the season figuring out porpoising. And the cost cap pretty much prevented them from making wholesale changes to their design.

I do agree with you, however. Teams are always hopeful that their upgrades will provide the expected gains, with varying levels of success historically. Who knows if Merc can make the jump, but it'd be tough to bet against them. I remain bearish, particularly if the gap is as big as 0.6s.

[chrisc90]

Nothing to suggest it could be the same this year though.

We will see come next weekend

[F1Krof]

However much of a gain they can make with the next update, so will the others.