2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[DGP123]

When is the earliest you can work on the 2026 car?

January, 2025

Any onboard footage to clear up the potential damage LH is talking about with Charles? Certainly something was up, either that, or as Toto alluded to, Lewis was just over managing trying for a one stop? Lewis was quicker in the next stints, so doesn’t really add up, only losing time to GR through the undercut, and then the second pit stop error.

[Venturiation]

3 years of data

[Hammerfist]

With a track like this highlighting the deficiencies in the car, This will be a long ass season. Pitstops still slow and can't optimise strategy because racepace is slow lool With Lewis, this guy lets Russell by gets the undercut then complains on the radio about how did they lose so much time. He probably knows deep down he has no authority in this team anymore. The relationship is ending in a bitter divorce.

It’s the same problem they had last year where the car is very slow on heavy fuel. It gets better at the end but it’s too little too late. Some thought it had to do with the fuel tank positioning last year as it was too high and altered the center of gravity negatively. The tank was lowered this year but they still have the same problem.

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really awkward.

Merc is so lucky Aston Martin has only one driver. They are the fifth best car right know so their normal positions are p9 and p10.

[venkyhere]

Lewis saying it's the best the car has felt all season, he hasn't changed much and intends to pretty much leave it where it is. George also agrees the car is really nice to drive

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... /10595149/

Maybe this will be the first time they aren’t chasing the setup?

All bets regarding Mercedes pace are off, until 5 race laps are done on a Sunday. Whatever they say and do on the previous two days has no relevance. That's my take.

This is where I get to say "I told you so".

[DGP123]

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really awkward.

That’s why I want to see if there was damage from contact with Charles at the restart that Lewis was referring too. Even letting George go by, George didn’t go anywhere, and Lewis was 1.5s behind George for a sustained period of time, until the pit stop/undercut.

[Luscion]

With a track like this highlighting the deficiencies in the car, This will be a long ass season. Pitstops still slow and can't optimise strategy because racepace is slow lool With Lewis, this guy lets Russell by gets the undercut then complains on the radio about how did they lose so much time. He probably knows deep down he has no authority in this team anymore. The relationship is ending in a bitter divorce.

It’s the same problem they had last year where the car is very slow on heavy fuel. It gets better at the end but it’s too little too late. Some thought it had to do with the fuel tank positioning last year as it was too high and altered the center of gravity negatively. The tank was lowered this year but they still have the same problem.

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really and awkward.

Merc is so lucky Aston Martin has only one driver. They are the fifth best car right know so their normal positions are p9 and p10.

Merc usually had better pace with the car full of fuel on Sundays than in quali last year. Lewis said he has tons of understeer, he was much slower than Russell so why hold him up just to cause both of them to lose tons of time. Seems to be more a temperature issue with tires like both Allison and this weekend, Bradley lord was talking about more than anything. Even on their second stint with the hards they were still slow and the car would have burnt off quite a bit of fuel by then, they put the mediums and then had pace

[chrisc90]

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really awkward.

That’s why I want to see if there was damage from contact with Charles at the restart that Lewis was referring too. Even letting George go by, George didn’t go anywhere, and Lewis was 1.5s behind George for a sustained period of time, until the pit stop/undercut.

Right at the start of the 2nd restart?

[DGP123]

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really awkward.

That’s why I want to see if there was damage from contact with Charles at the restart that Lewis was referring too. Even letting George go by, George didn’t go anywhere, and Lewis was 1.5s behind George for a sustained period of time, until the pit stop/undercut.

Right at the start of the 2nd restart?

Yes. Haven’t seen any onboard footage

“I think I picked up a bit of damage in the beginning with Charles, came on the outside. I had huuuge understeer for the first stint. I couldn’t turn the car in any of the corners, that’s why I let George by.”

[chrisc90]

Very hard to tell. If anything, there might be very very little contact with Lewis's right front wing with Charles left rear tyre. Would need to find a photo in the early laps to see if there was any damage to the wing endplate.

[Hammerfist]

With a track like this highlighting the deficiencies in the car, This will be a long ass season. Pitstops still slow and can't optimise strategy because racepace is slow lool With Lewis, this guy lets Russell by gets the undercut then complains on the radio about how did they lose so much time. He probably knows deep down he has no authority in this team anymore. The relationship is ending in a bitter divorce.

It’s the same problem they had last year where the car is very slow on heavy fuel. It gets better at the end but it’s too little too late. Some thought it had to do with the fuel tank positioning last year as it was too high and altered the center of gravity negatively. The tank was lowered this year but they still have the same problem.

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really and awkward.

Merc is so lucky Aston Martin has only one driver. They are the fifth best car right know so their normal positions are p9 and p10.

Merc usually had better pace with the car full of fuel on Sundays than in quali last year. Lewis said he has tons of understeer, he was much slower than Russell so why hold him up just to cause both of them to lose tons of time. Seems to be more a temperature issue with tires like both Allison and this weekend, Bradley lord was talking about more than anything. Even on their second stint with the hards they were still slow and the car would have burnt off quite a bit of fuel by then, they put the mediums and then had pace

No Merc problems with heavy fuel was pretty much well documented last year. Yeah they were normally stronger in the race than quali but the pace usually came later in the race. We see the same thing this year. They weren’t slow on the second set of hards initially. They just fell out of sequence with the other cars around them having fresher tires. Maybe it simply has to do with their strategy and they over manage the tires early, especially Lewis.

[Hammerfist]

That’s why I want to see if there was damage from contact with Charles at the restart that Lewis was referring too. Even letting George go by, George didn’t go anywhere, and Lewis was 1.5s behind George for a sustained period of time, until the pit stop/undercut.

Right at the start of the 2nd restart?

Yes. Haven’t seen any onboard footage

“I think I picked up a bit of damage in the beginning with Charles, came on the outside. I had huuuge understeer for the first stint. I couldn’t turn the car in any of the corners, that’s why I let George by.”

But this doesn’t explain why he was faster than George in the last 2 stints.

[chrisc90]

Link for anyone wanting to see the start.

[SKYnRacing24]

With a track like this highlighting the deficiencies in the car, This will be a long ass season. Pitstops still slow and can't optimise strategy because racepace is slow lool With Lewis, this guy lets Russell by gets the undercut then complains on the radio about how did they lose so much time. He probably knows deep down he has no authority in this team anymore. The relationship is ending in a bitter divorce.

It’s the same problem they had last year where the car is very slow on heavy fuel. It gets better at the end but it’s too little too late. Some thought it had to do with the fuel tank positioning last year as it was too high and altered the center of gravity negatively. The tank was lowered this year but they still have the same problem.

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really awkward.

Merc is so lucky Aston Martin has only one driver. They are the fifth best car right know so their normal positions are p9 and p10.

One of the worst things ive seen him do tbh. Its the defeatist mentality thats gonna break him if he doesn't get into the right frame of mind and Russell will use it against him, He knows the team are changing guard and Lewis probably feels out of place and on burrowed time. I believe he still has the pace and there was at times after he made a flap adjustment to counter the underrsteer but as fan. This is brutal to watch, Its officially his worst start in F1.

[ali623]

3 years of data

It's the same cycle since the start of 2022... This time last year (20th April, after Aus GP):

"In terms of car development, it is encouraging to see that within three races, we understand the car much better, we have defined a clear direction where we need to go and I believe we are on the right trajectory," Wolff told Mercedes' website.

[chrisc90]

With a track like this highlighting the deficiencies in the car, This will be a long ass season. Pitstops still slow and can't optimise strategy because racepace is slow lool With Lewis, this guy lets Russell by gets the undercut then complains on the radio about how did they lose so much time. He probably knows deep down he has no authority in this team anymore. The relationship is ending in a bitter divorce.

It’s the same problem they had last year where the car is very slow on heavy fuel. It gets better at the end but it’s too little too late. Some thought it had to do with the fuel tank positioning last year as it was too high and altered the center of gravity negatively. The tank was lowered this year but they still have the same problem.

Lewis letting George by I’ve never seen him do that before. I knew this would be an awkward season for him and it’s starting to get really awkward.

Merc is so lucky Aston Martin has only one driver. They are the fifth best car right know so their normal positions are p9 and p10.

One of the worst things ive seen him do tbh. Its the defeatist mentality thats gonna break him if he doesn't get into the right frame of mind and Russell will use it against him, He knows the team are changing guard and Lewis probably feels out of place and on burrowed time. I believe he still has the pace and there was at times after he made a flap adjustment to counter the oversteer but as fan. This is brutal to watch, Its officially his worst start in F1.

Whilst im sure its never what the fans of the driver want to see, you have to give him some credit though. He recognised that he wasnt the fastest and George was much faster behind in that first stint. Lewis probably thought the car(s) were in a good spot coming from his comments earlier in the weekend regarding the balance etc. If he thought his, little, contact with Charles was affecting his race with a poor front end, then makes sense to allow your team mate through to maximise the teams potential of points.

Why battle for a handful of laps with your team-mate and kill 2 sets of tyres when you know your cars not 'working' as it should be?