2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[ringo]

I donr blame them trying extremes with setup.
Russel is P8 and will not improve much from there.
Lewis may have been p5 without mistakes, but I think the changes were looking at Sunday's race pace. Lewis'car should imrpove for the race. He will be right behind George for the first stint. The cars in front are much slower.

[atanatizante]

Lewis had the pace to do well in quali without the mistakes and said as much in his f1tv interview. Shame but it happens

Should focus on Russell for points and just use Hamilton's race as a testbed

He missed the apex and took a wider line on turn 14 even on his first hot lap so it was a setup choice for preserving the rears ... speaking of this first hot lap in Q1 he questioned Bone over the radio about where he was losing time, the latter replied that he lost almost 6 tenths in that particular turn 14 ... and I remember you that even in the sprint race he struggled with this hairpin corner when needed to push being chased by VER ...

[Hammerfist]

Lewis had the pace to do well in quali without the mistakes and said as much in his f1tv interview. Shame but it happens

Should focus on Russell for points and just use Hamilton's race as a testbed

He missed the apex and took a wider line on turn 14 even on his first hot lap so it was a setup choice for preserving the rears ... speaking of this first hot lap in Q1 he questioned Bone over the radio about where he was losing time, the latter replied that he lost almost 6 tenths in that particular turn 14 ... and I remember you that even in the sprint race he struggled with this hairpin corner when needed to push being chased by VER ...

He said he couldn’t stop the car so i dont think it was a choice, just a mistake. Rosberg said on air that he didn’t account for the tail wind at that corner.

[Venturiation]

Their tools must be broken if they can't get setup right any week-end for 3 years, even during 2018-2021 they needed 3 FP to get a good setup

I don't see that changing for 2026, even with a good engine the cars are still ground effect and will use the learning from this era

[Paa]

Why not change the setup and take a PU. He is starting P18. Why not start from the pitlane.

That doesn't work this early into the season as he is still within his allocated engine pool.
He can still change it penalty free.

[organic]

Russell on the two cars' setups after quali

we’re pretty similar on the set-ups.

“We both went in a similar direction. There was a small difference. But yeah, directionally very similar between the two of us.

[Luscion]

Russell on the two cars' setups after quali

we’re pretty similar on the set-ups.

“We both went in a similar direction. There was a small difference. But yeah, directionally very similar between the two of us.

Genuinely curious if Lewis' go to for messing up in quali is blaming setup, but to his credit this time he admitted it was his fault, he didnt take the crosswind into account and could have easily made it out of Q1

[SKYnRacing24]

Russell on the two cars' setups after quali

we’re pretty similar on the set-ups.

“We both went in a similar direction. There was a small difference. But yeah, directionally very similar between the two of us.

This is why these ridiculous setup angles he keeps using is just his safety net hes partly built in his head when he's not on pace. The guy has lost it in terms of extracting performance over a race weekend. What ever him bono and his engineers are doing throughout all these sessions building up to Qualifying is all over the show. He can't bring this mentality to Ferrari. Its unacceptable from a guy of his calibre

[SKYnRacing24]

Their tools must be broken if they can't get setup right any week-end for 3 years, even during 2018-2021 they needed 3 FP to get a good setup

I don't see that changing for 2026, even with a good engine the cars are still ground effect and will use the learning from this era

Exactly. There simulation tools are outdated and they keep going up the wrong garden path. The whole team needs major restructuring and must concern Russell alot as he's stuck with these lot even if he becomes the 1st driver.

So this supposed update they have coming in imola will be interesting. I will be the first sample size IF they can turn this car around.

[Venturiation]

Their tools must be broken if they can't get setup right any week-end for 3 years, even during 2018-2021 they needed 3 FP to get a good setup

I don't see that changing for 2026, even with a good engine the cars are still ground effect and will use the learning from this era

Exactly. There simulation tools are outdated and they keep going up the wrong garden path. The whole team needs major restructuring and must concern Russell alot as he's stuck with these lot even if he becomes the 1st driver.

So this supposed update they have coming in imola will be interesting. I will be the first sample size IF they can turn this car around.

I don't see how 1 update cam turn 3 years of wrong tools
Before coming to bahrain this year they believed the solved every problem and that were going to be challenging for the WDC or be 2nd
2022 2023 et now have been data collection PR and we solved our problems PR
It shows that the zeropods by Mike was really the fastest car but whatever Mercedes got wrong for 3 years is what made it look bad

[venkyhere]

motorsport.com :

"The drivers chose to go in pretty different directions to support our learning process, but it clearly didn’t work for us today on a single lap" Toto Wolff

“We made massive changes going into qualifying,” he said. “We just wanted to experiment. So George [Russell] decided to go one way, much different to what we had because we worked pretty much with the same before."

Russell's assessment was slightly different, stating that there was "a small difference, but directionally very similar between the two of us", although conceded that the team had overall made wide-reaching changes from the sprint in a bid to evoke an improvement in lower-speed performance. Either way, those changes did not appear to work out; Russell could only manage eighth in qualifying - over a tenth behind the Ferraris as the rear end of the Mercedes did not appear to connect particularly well with the front.

Let's settle the driver debate: team principal Toto Wolff stated that "the drivers chose to go in pretty different directions to support our learning process, but it clearly didn’t work for us today on a single lap."

So who is LYING ?
The Reichmarshall (who wants to protect the First Lieutenant)
OR
The Second Lieutenant (who wants to expose the First Lieutenant's shortcomings)

[Cs98]

motorsport.com :

"The drivers chose to go in pretty different directions to support our learning process, but it clearly didn’t work for us today on a single lap" Toto Wolff

“We made massive changes going into qualifying,” he said. “We just wanted to experiment. So George [Russell] decided to go one way, much different to what we had because we worked pretty much with the same before."

Russell's assessment was slightly different, stating that there was "a small difference, but directionally very similar between the two of us", although conceded that the team had overall made wide-reaching changes from the sprint in a bid to evoke an improvement in lower-speed performance. Either way, those changes did not appear to work out; Russell could only manage eighth in qualifying - over a tenth behind the Ferraris as the rear end of the Mercedes did not appear to connect particularly well with the front.

Let's settle the driver debate: team principal Toto Wolff stated that "the drivers chose to go in pretty different directions to support our learning process, but it clearly didn’t work for us today on a single lap."

So who is LYING ?
The Reichmarshall (who wants to protect the First Lieutenant)
OR
The Second Lieutenant (who wants to expose the First Lieutenant's shortcomings)

Toto has always backed the excuse-making, part of his siege mentality. But it's pretty obvious when you look at the lap that Lewis did he wasn't lacking the pace to make it through, but he made a costly mistake. That's on him, not the set-up.

[j_ste]

motorsport.com :

"The drivers chose to go in pretty different directions to support our learning process, but it clearly didn’t work for us today on a single lap" Toto Wolff

“We made massive changes going into qualifying,” he said. “We just wanted to experiment. So George [Russell] decided to go one way, much different to what we had because we worked pretty much with the same before."

Russell's assessment was slightly different, stating that there was "a small difference, but directionally very similar between the two of us", although conceded that the team had overall made wide-reaching changes from the sprint in a bid to evoke an improvement in lower-speed performance. Either way, those changes did not appear to work out; Russell could only manage eighth in qualifying - over a tenth behind the Ferraris as the rear end of the Mercedes did not appear to connect particularly well with the front.

Let's settle the driver debate: team principal Toto Wolff stated that "the drivers chose to go in pretty different directions to support our learning process, but it clearly didn’t work for us today on a single lap."

So who is LYING ?
The Reichmarshall (who wants to protect the First Lieutenant)
OR
The Second Lieutenant (who wants to expose the First Lieutenant's shortcomings)

Toto has always backed the excuse-making, part of his siege mentality. But it's pretty obvious when you look at the lap that Lewis did he wasn't lacking the pace to make it through, but he made a costly mistake. That's on him, not the set-up.

And if you saw Lewis interview...he said that he should have got through to Q2 regardless. But even still, he had an issue with the car.

It can be both and likely was both.

[Luscion]

Looking at the lap times Lewis was losing around 2-4 tenths in the slow corners and then gaining it all back in the others, pretty much got stuck behind Ocon before he pitted and Piastri, dipping in and out of drs range before the detection point (despite Piastri having damage) because of it, Russell didn't seem to have the same issues.

[Hammerfist]

So Lewis was half a second slower than George all race. Yes I could hear the excuses coming already. The experiments blah blah blah…
The car is over a second slower than the Redbull. The Aston which they used to beat is now ahead. Going backwards. Soon they may not even be able to score points at this rate.