2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Spoutnik]

[wogx]

One year ago:


Such sentences should be thought out, not thrown around just like that

[F1NAC]

That article is pure BS..

That experience has made Mercedes more dangerous to its rivals than ever. The learnings from such a season should have further energised a team that has been so good at not letting complacency creep in around the edges. George Russell proved he belonged at the top level and Lewis Hamilton’s motivation continued to endure.

So what? others are just chilling without any will for success because they are in good position already? smh

[f1jcw]

I do find such statements very hard to believe, if it is true it reflects very badly on Toto and the technical directors.

Are they really saying all through the winning years they never invested back in to have the best tools in the business.
I could understand if they was Williams but this was a profitable winning team.

[organic]

Should be nice to see the A/B in the speedtrap/laptime if they do the same program-ish

[atanatizante]

The quotes from merc engineers in said AMuS article:

. "Red Bull has fallen from one extreme to the other. Last year it was the car that was highest at the back. Now it's the lowest at the rear axle," says Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott.

"If we were to drive so low, the underbody would break for us," compares Toto Wolff.

"The traction is breathtaking," confirms Wolff.

Of course, doesn't make it true, but wanted to clear it up that there are actual quotes in there on the topic

Are these pictures relevant enough to show us how low the RB19, AMR23 and W14 cars are running, at least here in testing?

[organic]

I think it's hard to say. All teams were changing the ride height all 3 days. I saw Perez running very low on the final day of testing

But we don't know if RB suffered excessive plank wear on that session to run such a ride height in reality

Let's wait until after this weekend to make representative comparisons of the ride heights their cars will actually run. Bahrain is also not the smoothest track so that may affect things slightly

[organic]

Hamilton: "From the moment I drove the W14, I knew the challenge we would have to face. We are not where we want to be but this is a team that has won championships. It is important not to have porpoising so we can focus on performance."

Russell: "In the tests we managed to solve some things we didn't expect quite easily. We needed the higher downforce wing for a matter of correlation. This weekend we will have a more suitable one. Positive signs but Red Bull is ahead."

From @SmilexTech on twitter [1], [2]

[AR3-GP]

Hamilton: "From the moment I drove the W14, I knew the challenge we would have to face. We are not where we want to be but this is a team that has won championships. It is important not to have porpoising so we can focus on performance."

As usual, the shakedown press events are for PR, not reality.

The driver ALWAYS knows on the shakedown filming day if the car will be trouble or not. Lewis had the same bad feeling last year (albeit for different reasons).

[mkay]

Hamilton: "From the moment I drove the W14, I knew the challenge we would have to face. We are not where we want to be but this is a team that has won championships. It is important not to have porpoising so we can focus on performance."

Not exactly glowing feedback from Hamilton, but seems to corroborate the overall narrative that Merc has a 'solid foundation' to build upon, but that the car isn't exactly going to be lighting up the time sheet for a while.

The deciding factor will be the success of their planned performance upgrades. So a lot of uncertainty remains, similar to 2022.

[Seanspeed]

One year ago:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQ9ohO-UcAAc_Gv.jpg

Such sentences should be thought out, not thrown around just like that

He and Russell Wilson must be long lost brothers, I swear. Same generic 'inspirational' cringe all the time.

[Vanja #66]

They are exaggerating bit too much. They'll be at most 3-4 tenths behind in Q, but I think closer to 2 tenths... In the race they will be only slightly behind

[organic]

Agreed I'm thinking the top 3 teams will be within 3 tenths

[pursue_one's]

Translation
" F1 | Mercedes: mid-load wing to find some speed

The Brackley-based team seeks to remedy the disappointments that emerged in last week's testing: the W14 showed low top speeds due to an overloaded rear wing that was needed to safeguard rear tire wear. Hamilton in FP1 will have a medium-load version that will be compared with Russell's standard one.

Mercedes has decided to do a comparative test in the first free practice session of the Bahrain GP: the Brackley-based team will use a more unloaded rear wing than the one that was fitted to the W14 in the three days of testing last week.

The Sakhier track usually requires a medium to high load, but following the choices made by Red Bull and Ferrari, the team headed by Mike Elliot also wants to see how the black arrow performs when configured with a medium-load rear wing.

The attempt is to improve aerodynamic efficiency to increase top speeds that still were not what was expected compared to the competition: Lewis Hamilton will be asked to run tomorrow with the new wing, while George Russell will devote himself to the version seen in collective tests and then there will be the exchange of solutions before arriving at a choice for the race weekend that does not start under the best auspices, since there is already talk of major corrections that could come for the Australian GP.

There is already some excitement in the Mercedes team, and there are several who believe that the technical director himself is under scrutiny because under his management both cars he has deliberated have certainly not been exciting. "

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-me ... /10438427/

[AR3-GP]

They are exaggerating bit too much. They'll be at most 3-4 tenths behind in Q, but I think closer to 2 tenths... In the race they will be only slightly behind

I'm still going with the 6 tenths that Mercedes claimed. Reading between the lines, they are very much not expecting to be competitive.

Team already is focusing press saying how the car is "a solid foundation to build on".