2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Mosin123]

Not allowing Ferrari to repair its car out side of the rules is lacking basic sportsmanship? i dont follow, or you have a different meaning to " sportsmanship " than the rest of the world. some would argue Merc showed sportsmanship for making sure the " Rules was respected " showing respect to all the other teams and drivers instead of disrespecting the rules to please one driver and one teams unfortunate damage?

This was posted right before your post, he admitted an unfair move himself

Toto's quote from a few weeks after the Vegas race. Let's stop making stuff up and face the truth

If we lost the championship by five points because I have acted in sporting fairness, and the rules would have allowed me to actually penalise the car, I need to do this.

applying the rules isnt unfair. overall it was unfair on Ferrari, But breaking the rules is unfair on every body else.

Its like a car crashing out due to a small drizzle of rain but every other driver keeping the car on track and then stopping the race and allowing him to rebuild his car and slot him back exactly where he was.

as you can see in Totos comments, if they didnt follow the rules, Merc would have missed out on 2nd place. be like 2021 again, but for 2nd rather than 1st.

He was hardly critising him self in that interview, he was defending him self. Where does it stop if they start breaking the rules for force majeure?

ill quote some of his comments from same interview

" "What happened to Carlos was absolutely unfair and me as a racer, I'm the first one to say that he didn't deserve the outcome. I think we should look at the rules," says Wolff.

"Force majeure as a difficult one, though, what happens with kerb strikes? You destroy your car by riding over a kerb, there's nothing we can do.

"What if you're riding over bumps with cold tyres, like what happened to Lando [Norris], and you smash it into the wall? Are people going to say this is a force majeure event?

"What if another car T-bones you and you haven't done nothing, is that force majeure? Nobody liked the situation with us as sportsmen, it wasn't just what happened to him.

"It ruined the race weekend for him that he maybe could've won. So we have to think hard about how we want to change that." "

[dialtone]

Its like a car crashing out due to a small drizzle of rain but every other driver keeping the car on track and then stopping the race and allowing him to rebuild his car and slot him back exactly where he was.

Wat?

A track unsafe to drive on due to inadequate preparation by local organizers under FIA and FOM supervision, that causes the life of all drivers to be at risk, unknowingly to them. Is absolutely not the same thing as some drizzle which is very well known and risks are taken differently by each driver and with their acceptance.

This is a ridiculous claim… every team agreed to allow the repairs but one. How can you even try and make this about it being Ferrari’s fault.

All of this after Williams and GR received compensation in 2019 for the same accident at Baku.

The partisanship is reaching new levels of ridiculous.

[Mosin123]

Last year Ferrari finished behind Merc only because Merc could not afford even the most basic sportmanship of letting Fer repair Sainz's car after the manhole damage.

Not allowing Ferrari to repair its car out side of the rules is lacking basic sportsmanship? i dont follow, or you have a different meaning to " sportsmanship " than the rest of the world. some would argue Merc showed sportsmanship for making sure the " Rules was respected " showing respect to all the other teams and drivers instead of disrespecting the rules to please one driver and one teams unfortunate damage?

You are right. We have quite different ideas regarding "sportmanship". Moreover, let me point out that repairing the
car was PERMITTED by rules, provided that all teams agreed to let a team to recover from a damage they could not do anything to predict and avoid . Indeed all the teams bar one were willing to let them fix the car (contrarily to directive TD039, foe example, that was imposed by a minority of teams). I would dare to say that vast majority of pit lane do align with my definition of spormanship much more than yours.

The stewards said " the rules themselves do not allow for “mitigating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances.".

[AmateurDriver]

Not allowing Ferrari to repair its car out side of the rules is lacking basic sportsmanship? i dont follow, or you have a different meaning to " sportsmanship " than the rest of the world. some would argue Merc showed sportsmanship for making sure the " Rules was respected " showing respect to all the other teams and drivers instead of disrespecting the rules to please one driver and one teams unfortunate damage?

You are right. We have quite different ideas regarding "sportmanship". Moreover, let me point out that repairing the
car was PERMITTED by rules, provided that all teams agreed to let a team to recover from a damage they could not do anything to predict and avoid . Indeed all the teams bar one were willing to let them fix the car (contrarily to directive TD039, foe example, that was imposed by a minority of teams). I would dare to say that vast majority of pit lane do align with my definition of spormanship much more than yours.

The stewards said " the rules themselves do not allow for “mitigating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances.".

You keep on missing the point. The rules say a rule can be superseded by an unanimous agreement. And all but one teams recognized that should be done for the sake of sportmanship.

[AmateurDriver]

Not allowing Ferrari to repair its car out side of the rules is lacking basic sportsmanship? i dont follow, or you have a different meaning to " sportsmanship " than the rest of the world. some would argue Merc showed sportsmanship for making sure the " Rules was respected " showing respect to all the other teams and drivers instead of disrespecting the rules to please one driver and one teams unfortunate damage?

You are right. We have quite different ideas regarding "sportmanship". Moreover, let me point out that repairing the
car was PERMITTED by rules, provided that all teams agreed to let a team to recover from a damage they could not do anything to predict and avoid . Indeed all the teams bar one were willing to let them fix the car (contrarily to directive TD039, foe example, that was imposed by a minority of teams). I would dare to say that vast majority of pit lane do align with my definition of spormanship much more than yours.

The stewards said " the rules themselves do not allow for “mitigating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances.".

Expecially considering that all but one team thought Ferrari should be allowed to repair the car. Curiously enough, it was the same one team that strived (and managed) to impose a mid-season change of rules (TD039) that was supported by a minority of teams.

[Mosin123]

Its like a car crashing out due to a small drizzle of rain but every other driver keeping the car on track and then stopping the race and allowing him to rebuild his car and slot him back exactly where he was.

Wat?

A track unsafe to drive on due to inadequate preparation by local organizers under FIA and FOM supervision, that causes the life of all drivers to be at risk, unknowingly to them. Is absolutely not the same thing as some drizzle which is very well known and risks are taken differently by each driver and with their acceptance.

This is a ridiculous claim… every team agreed to allow the repairs but one. How can you even try and make this about it being Ferrari’s fault.

All of this after Williams and GR received compensation in 2019 for the same accident at Baku.

The partisanship is reaching new levels of ridiculous.

i never said it was Ferraris fault, i already said it was unfair on them, but you cant just change the rules because some thing happened that was unfair on one competitor, its unfair when an engine breaks, or any equipment, its unfair when some one crashes into you. its unfair when your rear wing gets damaged during a q session and you get dq'ed because it was broken.. tough.

No one held up FP2 for GR when a man hole cover wrecked his car.
No one stopped and waited for Bottas to fix his car in FP3 for the same reason.
Or jenson in Monaco.
i can keep going, or Rubens and his kurb side grate!!, or Montoya and his puncture....

[dialtone]

Its like a car crashing out due to a small drizzle of rain but every other driver keeping the car on track and then stopping the race and allowing him to rebuild his car and slot him back exactly where he was.

Wat?

A track unsafe to drive on due to inadequate preparation by local organizers under FIA and FOM supervision, that causes the life of all drivers to be at risk, unknowingly to them. Is absolutely not the same thing as some drizzle which is very well known and risks are taken differently by each driver and with their acceptance.

This is a ridiculous claim… every team agreed to allow the repairs but one. How can you even try and make this about it being Ferrari’s fault.

All of this after Williams and GR received compensation in 2019 for the same accident at Baku.

The partisanship is reaching new levels of ridiculous.

i never said it was Ferraris fault, i already said it was unfair on them, but you cant just change the rules because some thing happened that was unfair on one competitor, its unfair when an engine breaks, or any equipment, its unfair when some one crashes into you. its unfair when your rear wing gets damaged during a q session and you get dq'ed because it was broken.. tough.

No one held up FP2 for GR when a man hole cover wrecked his car.
No one stopped and waited for Bottas to fix his car in FP3 for the same reason.
Or jenson in Monaco.
i can keep going, or Rubens and his kurb side grate!!, or Montoya and his puncture....

So long as we all agree it was done because otherwise Mercs weren’t gonna get 2nd in the championship then I’m good.

The rulebook is written without thinking about FIA mishandling a track like that. And when this happened to Toto he asked for a refund, so this isn’t about fairness, it’s about gaining advantages any way you can because you can’t deal on track.

[AmateurDriver]

Wat?

A track unsafe to drive on due to inadequate preparation by local organizers under FIA and FOM supervision, that causes the life of all drivers to be at risk, unknowingly to them. Is absolutely not the same thing as some drizzle which is very well known and risks are taken differently by each driver and with their acceptance.

This is a ridiculous claim… every team agreed to allow the repairs but one. How can you even try and make this about it being Ferrari’s fault.

All of this after Williams and GR received compensation in 2019 for the same accident at Baku.

The partisanship is reaching new levels of ridiculous.

i never said it was Ferraris fault, i already said it was unfair on them, but you cant just change the rules because some thing happened that was unfair on one competitor, its unfair when an engine breaks, or any equipment, its unfair when some one crashes into you. its unfair when your rear wing gets damaged during a q session and you get dq'ed because it was broken.. tough.

No one held up FP2 for GR when a man hole cover wrecked his car.
No one stopped and waited for Bottas to fix his car in FP3 for the same reason.
Or jenson in Monaco.
i can keep going, or Rubens and his kurb side grate!!, or Montoya and his puncture....

So long as we all agree it was done because otherwise Mercs weren’t gonna get 2nd in the championship then I’m good.

The rulebook is written without thinking about FIA mishandling a track like that. And when this happened to Toto he asked for a refund, so this isn’t about fairness, it’s about gaining advantages any way you can because you can’t deal on track.

That is exactly the reason why ruleset include the possibility to deny the effect of a rule by an unanimous agreement. A rule could have been written by rulers unaware of a possible conditions that teams can later on recognize as an unfair punishment for some contenders.

[AR3-GP]

[Mosin123]

Expecially considering that all but one team thought Ferrari should be allowed to repair the car. Curiously enough, it was the same one team that strived (and managed) to impose a mid-season change of rules (TD039) that was supported by a minority of teams.

8 out of 10 teams agree the 2021 finale race was unfair. 1 refused to comment because it was owned by the team who stood to gain the most, the 1 who stood to gain the most won the drivers title. but yet nothing was done, with multiple rules broken, and most importantly, it was Force Majeure on Mercs part as they couldnt possibly have forseen Masi breaking the rules. still waiting for the race to have ended behind the safety car as per the rules.

See how this works.

The whole arguing started because someone said "Merc defeated Ferrari last year" and I replied that that only happened as the outcome of quite a mean political move, not due to a clear technical/operational superiority. Sure That is how it worked, you see.

Thats how f1 is run, only reason we have an engine freeze is because Redbull was scared of Ferrari and Merc....
Only reason we lost qualy modes was because of the same game, the only reason we all now know any doesnt mean all. you know..... That is f1.

[mendis]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/george-ru ... rix-set-up

George Russell openly questions Lewis Hamilton’s Bahrain Grand Prix set-up claims

Some selective quotes here.

Put to him after the race that his team-mate chose a different setup, however, Russell argued that the Mercedes cars were in a similar ballpark with set-up – with his own better suit to race conditions.

He told media including PlanetF1.com: “Many people have said this.

“I don’t really know the big differences, to be honest, because as far as I’m aware with the cars we’re pretty similar.

“I don’t really focus too much on his set-up. Mine was actually more set up for the race than the set-up he ran. At least it was on Friday [for qualifying].”

Well, I think the title here in the article is extremely misleading. He was asked a simple question and he said he thinks they were on similar setup and his was biased towards race, more than Lewis' atleast until qualifying.

[Matt2725]

This is a ridiculous claim… every team agreed to allow the repairs but one.

Unless you've seen something I haven't, I don't believe this was ever actually proven to be true.

Yes Mercedes said they would have blocked it given the choice, but never that they actually did. Wolff's comments were taken way out of context. Indeed, the whole Mercedes blocked any dispensation came from a rumour started by one David Croft as I understand it, which was nothing but baseless speculation on his part.

The only facts we know for certain, is that the stewards said they would have liked to grant an exemption, but the rules don't allow them to. Officially from what I can see, no vote between the teams ever took place.

[Unc1eM0nty]

"George Russell openly questions Lewis Hamilton’s Bahrain Grand Prix set-up claims'

That's PlanetF1 for you, everything there is click bait, I steer clear.

Sounds like they both thought their set ups was the best for the race, I would argue that Lewis was in fact better due him finishing only 5 seconds back but starting 6 places back.

But would George have done any better using the same set up? who knows, I think it's more down to tyre management, Lewis has his own ideas and tricks to help with this, I doubt he shares everything with his team mate

[Jdn1327]

Jos has previously used Merc for leverage against Rb; I’m not convinced this is any different. Doubt anything will come of this

There is the question of money as well. What is Max's salary now? $55 million or so? Redbull are a very lucrative brand but Max is worth a lot more than this. That deal for 2028 was signed in 2021 as a single DWC. he is now a 3 time champ. So yeah if Mercedes offered him a mega deal like Ferrari offered Lewis...im sure he would consider it. Cos to be fair at $55 million...Redbull are getting him at a bargain price.

[CHT]

Jos has previously used Merc for leverage against Rb; I’m not convinced this is any different. Doubt anything will come of this

There is the question of money as well. What is Max's salary now? $55 million or so? Redbull are a very lucrative brand but Max is worth a lot more than this. That deal for 2028 was signed in 2021 as a single DWC. he is now a 3 time champ. So yeah if Mercedes offered him a mega deal like Ferrari offered Lewis...im sure he would consider it. Cos to be fair at $55 million...Redbull are getting him at a bargain price.

Drivers contract should include a performance bonus that is tagged to the result. I am sure F1 driver is not 100% drawn to salary only. i reckon LH will be willing to drive for free if someone can guarantee him a car that can win the 8WDC.