2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Oleo]

Hamilton 3 tenths ahead of Russell

all week you get the Hamilton is crap on a Saturday, and he goes and easily beats Russell in Q2 & Q3. Unfortunately for Merc, there’s nothing remotely special about George

As for tomorrow, a top 5 finish would be a miracle.

To be fair to george his runs were at different times. Maybe his choice but Lewis did his runs when the track was more ramped up. So theyre closer than the 3 tenths. The other theory is Lewis is hiding his hand like he did when paired with Rosberg.

Q2 russell went like 20 secs later than Hamilton.
Q3 3 drivers went for 2 runs on new tyres, 1 improved with 0 pressure on his lap, having already won pole, 2 did not improve.
Ramp up likely had nothing to do with it.
Maybe Hamilton just had a good qualy and Russell just a slightly worse, with different setups or whatever.

[ringo]

Russel did his run with about 6 minutes left? And did only one run in Q3.
Hamilton was last man on the track and did 2 runs. His second run gave him those 3 tenths.
Him and george were not on the track the same time.
I am not finding excuses for George but saying the gap maybe is not as bad as it seems.
It seemed to me that George had the upper hand this weekend until Q3.

[Tvetovnato]

Russel did his run with about 6 minutes left? And did only one run in Q3.
Hamilton was last man on the track and did 2 runs. His second run gave him those 3 tenths.
Him and george were not on the track the same time.
I am not finding excuses for George but saying the gap maybe is not as bad as it seems.
It seemed to me that George had the upper hand this weekend until Q3.

Had track evolution been worth 3 tenths, Russell would never have gone out earlier.

Hamilton’s second run gave him his tenths due to new tyres compared to used tyres in his first run.

[Cs98]

I'm guessing what Hamilton means is he knows what feels wrong with the car. He's not coming to the wind tunnel to evaluate solutions. Formulating the problem is the easy part, solving it is why you have engineers. Adding rear load sounds simple, but it becomes complicated when you need to add that whilst keeping all the goodness (as Allison would say) that you already have. Can't let the car become sluggish on the front end, or inefficient in a straight line whilst focusing on adding rear load.. A more complicated equation than it seems.

[Oleo]

Russel did his run with about 6 minutes left? And did only one run in Q3.
Hamilton was last man on the track and did 2 runs. His second run gave him those 3 tenths.
Him and george were not on the track the same time.
I am not finding excuses for George but saying the gap maybe is not as bad as it seems.
It seemed to me that George had the upper hand this weekend until Q3.

Yeah sure, but track evolution is just not the reason for the gap.
Staying in the flow with an additional run on used tyres is a much more likely possible explanation for Hamilton to be faster.
Indeed the gap could be inflated, but it could just as well not be.

[ringo]

Yes it's hard to tell.
There was even a theory by the sky crew that running on used tyres can cause the driver to recalibrate his braking points and then cause him to not get the most out of the car when it eventually goes on the new tyres.
So a single new tyre run can be advantageous mentally.
I would prefer to stay in the rhythm and get in as much laps as possible during qualy.

[SuperCNJ]

Russel did his run with about 6 minutes left? And did only one run in Q3.
Hamilton was last man on the track and did 2 runs. His second run gave him those 3 tenths.
Him and george were not on the track the same time.
I am not finding excuses for George but saying the gap maybe is not as bad as it seems.
It seemed to me that George had the upper hand this weekend until Q3.

Had track evolution been worth 3 tenths, Russell would never have gone out earlier.

Hamilton’s second run gave him his tenths due to new tyres compared to used tyres in his first run.

I don't follow the logic of track evolution and the 3 tenths to George. Shouldn't track evolution be gauged by comparing the laps of the same driver and not comparing with his teammate?

Lewis's first run in Q3 was 1:30.719, his second run was 1:29.908. That's a difference of 8 tenths. Surely that can't just be track evolution otherwise you would see a similar improvement with all the cars.

Does anyone know why George didn't go out for a second run in Q3? And did George do his Q3 run on new tyres?

[AR3-GP]

I can't understand the sniping between folks over Russell vs Hamilton on a day when their best effort was 1 second down on pole. The drivers are not the issue here.

I have to say Toto picked a good GP to skip...

[JonoNic]

I'm guessing what Hamilton means is he knows what feels wrong with the car. He's not coming to the wind tunnel to evaluate solutions. Formulating the problem is the easy part, solving it is why you have engineers. Adding rear load sounds simple, but it becomes complicated when you need to add that whilst keeping all the goodness (as Allison would say) that you already have. Can't let the car become sluggish on the front end, or inefficient in a straight line whilst focusing on adding rear load.. A more complicated equation than it seems.

Could it be that the rear load issue on the W14 be because they copied quite a bit of the RB18/19 concept? Max likes a very sensitive front end, and he'll handle the rear. So I'm just wondering.

[xaero]

Russel acting smart and immediately shown his place by Ham. IMO, HAM is being too nice with him and that needs to stop. Incidents like this will help.

[basti313]

Russel acting smart and immediately shown his place by Ham. IMO, HAM is being too nice with him and that needs to stop. Incidents like this will help.

No worry, he got his penalty.

[Spoutnik]

[ferrarifire]

Irrespective of it, they have gained 1 position to Ferrari and also stopped possibly lecrec overtaking piastri..at the end this is what matters and they ve limited the damage

[Spoutnik]

[Bill_Kar]

Irrespective of it, they have gained 1 position to Ferrari and also stopped possibly lecrec overtaking piastri..at the end this is what matters and they ve limited the damage

I think Piastri had Leclerc covered, quite easily as well. He was only under pressure due to him being stuck behind Russell, but otherwise McLaren had a lot of pace at hand over Ferrari.

Mercedes capitalised over Ferrari's strategy in the end, but always with the drama. I mean Russell's one pit stop strategy is falling apart, you could see it even in the picture, mind live timing, what was the point of fighting against Hamilton when Sainz was coming? Honestly, they should just make Russell jump over at the instant that Hamilton got DRS.

At least they didn't hear Russell's advice, that would be furious to say the least. With a car 2 seconds slower than Hamilton and Sainz, did he honestly believed that could work?

I just hope he is not all high and mighty again after the race. He took a gamble and lost, kudos for trying but cmon.