2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Quantum]

Toto claims that the team has identified the root cause if the issue now.

Lewis stated this as well in one of his interviews. He said that Suzuka was the kind of test track he needed, and it was now really obvious what had to be done to the car to improve it. I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.

It's all they can do. Since the onset of these rules and relying on inconsistent data from their simulations, they have been met with disappointment.
Run it, test it, learn incrementally. The focus should be just that, learning and building for 2026 as nobody is beating RB this year or next, the gap is too large and rules to confined for anyone to beat them to the titles.

[chrisc90]

I cant see how a tiny tiny bit of a end plate will make understeer in all fairness. The damage was tiny!

[venkyhere]

Where exactly is the front wing damage that people are talking about ? There is a small scuffing on the right side end plate outer canard. Is that the 'damage' ? I can't see anything else.

[Vanja #66]

I am 99% sure it was more down to the change in balance between Q and R due to higher temperatures. Unfortunately, Mercedes showed they can't be trusted with their explanations lately, whether it's down to receiving incorrect data or their poor interpretation.

[Luscion]

I am 99% sure it was more down to the change in balance between Q and R due to higher temperatures. Unfortunately, Mercedes showed they can't be trusted with their explanations lately, whether it's down to receiving incorrect data or their poor interpretation.

AMUS talks about their performance issues with temp and tires

The Japanese GP was a weekend of experiments for Mercedes. One thing at least seems to have worked. When finding the car set-up, they want to focus on the mechanical balance first before thinking about the aero balance. This is intended to combat the problem that the tires either enter the working window at different times or drop out again at the slightest temperature fluctuations. The rear was identified as the weak point of the W15. The rear tires overheated too quickly. For this reason, the rear axle was mechanically relieved in Suzuka, while the front axle was subjected to more stress, which meant that the front wing angle could be reduced. With the chosen setup, the lap times remained fairly constant over the weekend. The rise in temperature on Sunday and the strong tailwind in the S-curves did not affect the Silver Arrows as much as usual this time. Nevertheless, a patent solution has not yet been found.

[Cs98]

He was clearly faster in stint 2 and 3. He lost time on the inlaps of course because George was on fresher tires at the time. But I found out the truth:

"It took us two stints to finally dial more and more wing in to make up for that loss. Last stint, I was better, but it was too late, I had 10 seconds to regain."

https://racinginfinity.com/f1/hamilton- ... t-would-be

So yeah he got damage and lost front downforce but then he adjusted his wing throughout the race and that’s where the extra pace came from. Unfortunate. He probably finishes ahead of Alonso without that.

Yes but that's the point isn't it. If you lose 6 seconds from staying out two laps longer and then only make back 5 seconds in the stint you were slower overall, not faster. That's basically what happened, until George hit traffic.

The damage was tiny. We've seen people have great pace missing an entire endplate. Chances are the balance was just off from the start with the higher temps.

Okay, so what you are saying is Hamilton is a slow mediocre driver. We get it now.
The season is long. I can make a bet that by half way through the season, Hamilton would be back to his usual run and onlookers will say mercedes moved the car away from Russel and that's what's benefitting Hamilton.
Every year this happens.
The W14 updates claimed the same, and same will happen with W15.
We are just 4 races in. At this point I am just watching the races as the season unfolds. Hamilton is almost 40, he cannot be expected to be firing on 100% for 17 years straight every race.
He did have understeer in the car by the crash, and still was on Russel's pace more or less. It's not really much to argue about or raise an Alarm. It's perfectly fine if Russel outperforms him on some weekends also.
Next year when Russel has Sainz, or Checo or Alonso in the car, it would give some perspective on how good George is.

Nice straw man.

I am saying George was faster in the race. We don't need 100 excuses every time it happens, from the team or the fans. The "damage" is a red herring, it was literally tantamount to some scuff marks on the outside of the endplate. George is a very talented driver and capable of beating Lewis on any given weekend. So unless you are saying George is a slow and mediocre driver then in no way can we assume that Hamilton is just because George outperformed him.

[mstar]

Not really once they added front wing to compesate for the understeer (due to small damage), Lewis was the faster driver he closed like 5 seconds+ to GR who was pushing like hell to catch Oscar. So for me if they was no damage / on mediums lewis was again the superior driver. The laptimes on last stint don't lie.

[Cs98]

Not really once they added front wing to compesate for the understeer (due to small damage), Lewis was the faster driver he closed like 5 seconds+ to GR who was pushing like hell to catch Oscar. So for me if they was no damage / on mediums lewis was again the superior driver. The laptimes on last stint don't lie.

The stint where Lewis had fresher tyres? Let me remind you, George gained 6,5s on the undercut, that needs to be taken into account. Lewis was expected to catch back up with fresher tyres, it's a high deg track.

[CaribouBread]

I am 99% sure it was more down to the change in balance between Q and R due to higher temperatures. Unfortunately, Mercedes showed they can't be trusted with their explanations lately, whether it's down to receiving incorrect data or their poor interpretation.

Still waiting for those "cooling setup" tenths from Bahrain to materialize

[LetHimTrough]

I am 99% sure it was more down to the change in balance between Q and R due to higher temperatures. Unfortunately, Mercedes showed they can't be trusted with their explanations lately, whether it's down to receiving incorrect data or their poor interpretation.

Still waiting for those "cooling setup" tenths from Bahrain to materialize

I completely forgot that one, and I dont think any journalist has asked a follow through on that one.

[ringo]

There are lap charts that would show the pace between the two. The steeper time delta curve would say better pace.
It's simple as that.
The damaged wing does not need to be visual. it could be the wing, it could be the alignment that got knocked. What we do know is the understeer was there and it was fixed twice. Hamilton could not be fixing something that never existed.
And let's be honest, if Hamilton is slow, he would admit George did a better job. He has done that in the past.

[pursue_one's]

Where exactly is the front wing damage that people are talking about ? There is a small scuffing on the right side end plate outer canard. Is that the 'damage' ? I can't see anything else.

At least some damage on his endplate

[dialtone]

Where exactly is the front wing damage that people are talking about ? There is a small scuffing on the right side end plate outer canard. Is that the 'damage' ? I can't see anything else.

At least some damage on his endplate

If that damage was enough to cause understeer, this car is on a razor thin balance.

I don’t know how AutoSport can say Mercedes improved more than other in this track when last year they finished 6s behind Sainz and this time 26s behind, or 20 behind suboptimal-strategy-LEC after starting ahead/behind.

They can’t really use just quali to track this, points are Sunday, if Merc is trading race for quali they are making a mistake.

[PlatinumZealot]

I cant see how a tiny tiny bit of a end plate will make understeer in all fairness. The damage was tiny!

https://www.racefans.net/wp-content/upl ... _HiRes.jpg
https://images.ps-aws.com/c?url=https%3 ... sell-1.jpg

Why are you so focused on this? What are you trying to say? Spill the beans.

[AR3-GP]

I cant see how a tiny tiny bit of a end plate will make understeer in all fairness. The damage was tiny!

https://www.racefans.net/wp-content/upl ... _HiRes.jpg
https://images.ps-aws.com/c?url=https%3 ... sell-1.jpg

Why are you so focused on this? What are you trying to say? Spill the beans.

It just fits into the narrative that Mercedes has been pushing to the press which is that they are much much faster, and even podium contending if not for A, B, and C issues, which are different every weekend.

Was Hamilton's endplate worth 4 tenths now?