2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Rikhart]

We need some people with insider knowledge to show up and report, asap. Could the team be afraid to push with floor design due to fear of bouncing?

I wonder if the floor edge height increase is playing a role.

This would be absolutely hilarious, since it was their constant whining that brought that ruling about.

[Vanja #66]

I wonder if the floor edge height increase is playing a role.

It played in their favour, but maybe they failed to exploit it. Let's see how things go in the race, if they do much better than Q regarding lap time, then their tyre warmup issue is acting up again. Still, I expected a big step with floor and that seems to be missing.

[McMika98]

We need some people with insider knowledge to show up and report, asap. Could the team be afraid to push with floor design due to fear of bouncing?

Nope they need to hire Dan Fallows, the Aston shows you don't need to push the floor close to ground to get the pace.

[AR3-GP]

I wonder if the floor edge height increase is playing a role.

It played in their favour, but maybe they failed to exploit it.

Maybe that's what they thought initially. However it wouldn't be the first time that Mercedes misunderstood the impact of a change to the floor rules. They really have struggled in the last 3 seasons with floor development. 2021 launch spec was a sloppy car. 2022 porpoising. 2023 to be continued?

[zakhassan44]

We need some people with insider knowledge to show up and report, asap. Could the team be afraid to push with floor design due to fear of bouncing?

I wonder if the floor edge height increase is playing a role.

considering merc pushed for it, that would be catastrophic internally surely?

[Vanja #66]

Maybe that's what they thought initially. However it wouldn't be the first time that Mercedes misunderstood the impact of a change to the floor rules. They really have struggled in the last 3 seasons with floor development. 2021 launch spec was a sloppy car. 2022 porpoising. 2023 to be continued?

Well, obviously everything is theoretical, but if you managed to extract 85% of floor performance from a set of rules and rivals got 90% - you are behind. If the new peak of performance is now at 95% of the old one you've basically cut them off from available progress, giving you a chance to catch up. But you still need to catch up.

RB gave up on rake in pursuit of performance and Ferrari got their car lower than last year. Merc wanted to get their car lower all year long and finally they got it (seems to me) and still seem to miss some downforce.

Again, Q will tell a part of story and race will tell the rest. But for now, it seems Merc is missing some downforce no matter the fuel loads, engine settings or tyre warm up "issues"

[stonehenge]

IMHO the biggest thing Mercedes can hope for is that the ceiling of these ground effect cars are much lower than previous formulas. I think that's still the biggest question mark for everyone, in general. Is Red Bull going to continue to improve with every update or are they getting close to the performance ceiling? If it's the former, then Mercedes will keep playing catch up because they're years behind at this point. The fact that Aston Martin made such a big leep so early into the formula despite an insanely bad launch car gives me a lot of hope that the field will simply move together much sooner and more noticably than we've seen before.

[Sevach]

IMHO the biggest thing Mercedes can hope for is that the ceiling of these ground effect cars are much lower than previous formulas. I think that's still the biggest question mark for everyone, in general. Is Red Bull going to continue to improve with every update or are they getting close to the performance ceiling? If it's the former, then Mercedes will keep playing catch up because they're years behind at this point. The fact that Aston Martin made such a big leep so early into the formula despite an insanely bad launch car gives me a lot of hope that the field will simply move together much sooner and more noticably than we've seen before.

Aston Martin(suppousedly) seems pretty close to best case scenario of a team that dumped their design concept (in their case, double floor/extreme undercut), copied the leading team formula, and now less than 1 year later they look just about ready to compete.

[PlatinumZealot]

HAM's top speed on his fast lap wasn't bad.

https://i.imgur.com/OyyFFsv.jpeg

This is compared to LEC as it's what I had, but Ferrari top speed was on par with RBR. HAM seems to lose in T5-6-7 and the slow speed traction. Probably they tried to fix the top speed with the smaller wing judging that their tire degradation would save them, together with maybe helping warming those tires up faster.

In terms of being bad at Saudi I'm thinking of high speed corners where the car does not seem to work this weekend

Sheeit.... Our tyres are gone after a few turns!

[AMG.Tzan]

The car is so far behind that even the biggest upgrade won’t help take it back to the top!

Unbelievable that after so much trial and error last year and so much talk by Elliot about the concept having a lot of potential!

Elliot should be gone after the big upgrade! Where is Allison?? They need new engineers!

[Weachter78!]

Mike’s credibility is being tested right out the gates sticking with this design. For all the good he has done over the years for Mercedes, I feel this is a highly crucial time for his future moving forward with the Silver Arrows. Staying patient personally, but starting further back this year over last year, doesn’t give anyone a vote of confidence in his designs and ability moving forward.

[PlatinumZealot]

I wonder if the floor edge height increase is playing a role.

It played in their favour, but maybe they failed to exploit it.

Maybe that's what they thought initially. However it wouldn't be the first time that Mercedes misunderstood the impact of a change to the floor rules. They really have struggled in the last 3 seasons with floor development. 2021 launch spec was a sloppy car. 2022 porpoising. 2023 to be continued?

Yes. It's a people problem they have. They need fresh blood.

[PlatinumZealot]

IMHO the biggest thing Mercedes can hope for is that the ceiling of these ground effect cars are much lower than previous formulas. I think that's still the biggest question mark for everyone, in general. Is Red Bull going to continue to improve with every update or are they getting close to the performance ceiling? If it's the former, then Mercedes will keep playing catch up because they're years behind at this point. The fact that Aston Martin made such a big leep so early into the formula despite an insanely bad launch car gives me a lot of hope that the field will simply move together much sooner and more noticably than we've seen before.

Aston Martin(suppousedly) seems pretty close to best case scenario of a team that dumped their design concept (in their case, double floor/extreme undercut), copied the leading team formula, and now less than 1 year later they look just about ready to compete.

Aston also had the man who understood the concept and probably created it! Remember Dan fallows said the ramps and floor was designed for Aston in November 2021.

[mendis]

I wonder if the floor edge height increase is playing a role.

It played in their favour, but maybe they failed to exploit it. Let's see how things go in the race, if they do much better than Q regarding lap time, then their tyre warmup issue is acting up again. Still, I expected a big step with floor and that seems to be missing.

May be you should be leading Mercedes.

[ringo]

We need some people with insider knowledge to show up and report, asap. Could the team be afraid to push with floor design due to fear of bouncing?

Nope they need to hire Dan Fallows, the Aston shows you don't need to push the floor close to ground to get the pace.

I am starting to think they need a disciple of Newey.
They just dont have the knowledge or right philosophy in many aspects for this particular formula. The pre ground effect formula was their stomping grounds. Seems this one is their cryptonite.

We have a FP3 to sort the car out. I feel it will be a better race car than a Q3 car. Despite that little animation showing the car poor in direction change and high speed. It seemed okay in the first sector. Almost as if the tyres went off easily.
I am hoping its all dpwn to tyre prep.