2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[SKYnRacing24]

They’re always neck and neck, what more do you guys want?

If you want to see what washed looks like, look at Yuki vs Ric and Stroll vs Alonso.

The Rus vs Ham arguments are just silly. You could cover them in a blanket performance wise.

I want him to out qualify this muppet. 7-1 and your asking " What more do you want " Come on man wake up and smell the coffee. Hamilton fans have every right to be worried about his qualy performance. Leclerc will put the final nails in the coffin. Can't hide behind setup excuses again.

They’re the closes driving pairing on the grid week in and week out.

One is up there with all time greats and near 40yo. The other is at his peak and is right there with said “one of all time greats”.

If you are a Merc fan, you have to be stoked with what you have as far as drivers go, and instead, everyone is miserable. Merc’s problem is absolutely not the drivers, which you can’t say for most of the teams.

Everyone should he arguing how James Allison and the rest of the engineering staff aren’t delivering front of grid cars and upgrades. Even direct some judgement to Peter Bonnington for missed set ups and direction for Hamilton. It’s not the drivers though.

I can't believe what im reading... " Merc fans " Nah mate most of us are Hamilton fans, you think we will give a toss about this team once Lewis leaves lool It doesn't matter if there " evenly matched " his qualy form is not good enough and from what ive seen in his interview. He hasn't got a slightest clue why...thats the troubling thing. Im not about to be gaslite by the narrative of he's getting old or how he's testing how sensitive his bum nerves are. Ive got too much of a sample size mate. Are you technically saying i should be content with Lewis losing 7-1 in Qualyfing while he's the record holder in poles in F1 history.....i think not olol.

[sport777]

tell me it seemed to me or Merce attacked the curbs well, I don’t know why but the second sector let me down

Sorry, I didn't watch Q fully, barely watched half the Q3 live. In FPs they were very good on curbs, I expect they carried that through to Q3. Mercedes, similarly to Ferrari, works their floor differently from RB and McLaren and I expected they'd be closer here as they'd lose less performance by raising the car/floor than RB and McLaren. In turn, this of course allows softer setup and offers better performance over bumps and curbs.

What I mean is that the updates are gradually bearing fruit and they are increasing, the car looked decent, they are also preparing a series of updates. Regarding Russell's fastest lap, he had an obvious Tabac problem, either a setting or an error, he lost quite a lot of time there, but what's strange is that on every straight line Merc was the fastest, even faster than RB

[Luscion]

Idk if Lewis is lacking confidence in quali , he's just being pessimistic or something else is going on but yea, here's his post quali interview. Shovlin also hinted at George benefitting from the new front wing

[PlatinumZealot]

As usual, Lewis cannot get it done in Q3.

Don't think the front wing was a game changer. Hamilton was ahead of Russell all weekend.

It's his age. See Alonso at the back too. Not mention he's also riddled with long Covid. Not exactly the fittest driver so they just can't keep up with these heavy cars. Normal service of Lewis beating George won't resume unfortunately.

[deadhead]

As usual, Lewis cannot get it done in Q3.

Don't think the front wing was a game changer. Hamilton was ahead of Russell all weekend.

Not mention he's also riddled with long Covid.

Hamilton? How is he even able to drive then.. I know a few athletes who got it and they've been pretty much sidelined since, but I guess there are different degrees of severity

[Hoffman900]

As usual, Lewis cannot get it done in Q3.

Don't think the front wing was a game changer. Hamilton was ahead of Russell all weekend.

It's his age. See Alonso at the back too. Not mention he's also riddled with long Covid. Not exactly the fittest driver so they just can't keep up with these heavy cars. Normal service of Lewis beating George won't resume unfortunately.

It’s not his age.

See Will Power and Scott Dixon in Indy Car (both 43yo), which are much more physical to drive. Less peak g forces but no power steering. Indy also races on bumpier circuits.

Most F1 drivers have to bulk up with muscle when going over. Ovals are also brutal in terms of sustained g forces (3-3.5g’s for sustained periods, 4x a lap, for 500 miles) and races near twice as long as a F1 race.

I’ve been rooting for Lewis since his GP2 days, but you also can’t ignore George’s record and he’s at his peak, George will never be faster than he is right now. Regardless of all this, they are near each other every qualifying / race session.

All this distracts from the dumpster fire that is the engineering departments at Mercedes. George and Lewis aren’t even remotely close to being problems for the Merc team.

Take Lewis or George out of the team, and Merc looks like a bigger dumpster fire, because having both of them maximizes, in most races, their results.

[Luscion]

As usual, Lewis cannot get it done in Q3.

Don't think the front wing was a game changer. Hamilton was ahead of Russell all weekend.

It's his age. See Alonso at the back too. Not mention he's also riddled with long Covid. Not exactly the fittest driver so they just can't keep up with these heavy cars. Normal service of Lewis beating George won't resume unfortunately.

It’s not his age.

See Will Power and Scott Dixon in Indy Car (both 43yo), which are much more physical to drive. Less peak g forces but no power steering. Indy also races on bumpier circuits.

Most F1 drivers have to bulk up with muscle when going over. Ovals are also brutal in terms of sustained g forces (3-3.5g’s for sustained periods, 4x a lap, for 500 miles) and races near twice as long as a F1 race.

I’ve been rooting for Lewis since his GP2 days, but you also can’t ignore George’s record and he’s at his peak, George will never be faster than he is right now. Regardless of all this, they are near each other every qualifying / race session.

All this distracts from the dumpster fire that is the engineering departments at Mercedes. George and Lewis aren’t even remotely close to being problems for the Merc team.

Take Lewis or George out of the team, and Merc looks like a bigger dumpster fire, because having both of them maximizes, in most races, their results.

Agreed, I think the field being this close also makes it look worse than it is, its not like George is beating Lewis in quali by huge margins. Even in Australia when Lewis didnt make Q2, George only beat him by .059 secs and that was good enough to get into Q3 while Lewis got knocked out. That being said Lewis does need to work on his quali pace

[Hoffman900]

It's his age. See Alonso at the back too. Not mention he's also riddled with long Covid. Not exactly the fittest driver so they just can't keep up with these heavy cars. Normal service of Lewis beating George won't resume unfortunately.

It’s not his age.

See Will Power and Scott Dixon in Indy Car (both 43yo), which are much more physical to drive. Less peak g forces but no power steering. Indy also races on bumpier circuits.

Most F1 drivers have to bulk up with muscle when going over. Ovals are also brutal in terms of sustained g forces (3-3.5g’s for sustained periods, 4x a lap, for 500 miles) and races near twice as long as a F1 race.

I’ve been rooting for Lewis since his GP2 days, but you also can’t ignore George’s record and he’s at his peak, George will never be faster than he is right now. Regardless of all this, they are near each other every qualifying / race session.

All this distracts from the dumpster fire that is the engineering departments at Mercedes. George and Lewis aren’t even remotely close to being problems for the Merc team.

Take Lewis or George out of the team, and Merc looks like a bigger dumpster fire, because having both of them maximizes, in most races, their results.

Agreed, I think the field being this close also makes it look worse than it is, its not like George is beating Lewis in quali by huge margins. Even in Australia when Lewis didnt make Q2, George only beat him by .059 secs and that was good enough for P7 in Q2 while Lewis got knocked out. That being said Lewis does need to work on his quali pace

They’re the closes pairing on the grid and as a result are maximizing points.

Every other team on the grid is always leaving some haul points on the table on most weekends when you factor in both car. George and Lewis are finishing with a position or two of each other every weekend. Other teams it’s 3-5+ position differences.

And remember, F1 is primarily a constructor’s championship.

[PlatinumZealot]

Ok news just in . Lewis did not have the new front wing. For some reason he chose not to use it? Worth 2 tenths if he is to be believed. So nothing in it really. 8 hundredths. Could have gone either way if he had the new wing.

[Hoffman900]

Ok news just in . Lewis did not have the new front wing. For some reason he chose not to use it? Worth 2 tenths if he is to be believed. So nothing in it really. 8 hundredths. Could have gone either way if he had the new wing.

I mean woulda coulda shoulda. They’re quicker than those behind, so the race tomorrow is to put Max behind them.

Lewis has the inside grid spot behind Max, with George in front, a good start will be the difference.

[ringo]

Russell has beaten him on all types of tracks and Lewis hasn't got a answer for his pace. Its absolute domination in qualy. The fact he had 3 trouble free practice session and Russell was having problems in all of them. Yet when it comes down to it. He loses out. Must be a mental block and will only get worse if this form keeps going on . Plus Russell and his smug face will be absolutely loving this. Sort it out Hamilton maybe you should stop with all this fashion nonsense and focus on your job mate

Hamilton is almost 40 years old. He is doing well for his age. People forget that he has been in formula 1 for almost 20 years.
Imagine doing the same thing for 17 years and expecting to be on top all the time.
It's like a 40 year old going back to college to do engineering again and compete with the sharp minds fresh out of highschool.
Monaco demands a young fresh brain and cat like reflexes. I was actually suprised Lewis was ahead at the start of the weekend.
Look on Alonso vs Stroll. It's just not going to happen for the older drivers, not matter how fit they say they feel.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Hamilton dropping fashion wont change anything. The next best thing he can do is take performance enhancing drugs if he is going to perform like a 24 year old.

[Luscion]

Ok news just in . Lewis did not have the new front wing. For some reason he chose not to use it? Worth 2 tenths if he is to be believed. So nothing in it really. 8 hundredths. Could have gone either way if he had the new wing.

Merc tried to push the Canada upgrades to Monaco but they only managed to bring one wing, Ted said Lewis agreed George should take it because he didnt want to risk damaging it, who knows. Lewis did say he knew it was going to hard to beat George with him having the upgraded wing, Shovlin also said George benefited from having the upgraded front wing and that both will have it in Canada

[ringo]

Interesting from Lewis saying he doesnt expect to be ahead of George typically this year in quali, when asked why all year he said "we'll see". Dont know if something is going on in Merc or its just pessimistic Lewis kicking in

He is realistic. He is older. And even though he wont admit it, he is not as hungry as Russel. Russel must be the hungriest driver on the grid now.
Hamilton doesnt obsess with sim racing like Max and Lando or even Karting like Alonso. I think he is just smelling the roses and not fighting the inevitable.
But the truth is everytime Hamilton is behind Russel or vice Versa the gap is a few hundreths.
They are basically equal. And that shows what level Hamilton is operating at for his age.
Russel is no slouch. Probably equal to Leclerc in qualy pace.
Both Merc drivers are getting the Maximum out of the car. A few fades here other there by either, but both consistently in the 6th to 8th position on the grid.

[ringo]

As usual, Lewis cannot get it done in Q3.

Don't think the front wing was a game changer. Hamilton was ahead of Russell all weekend.

It's his age. See Alonso at the back too. Not mention he's also riddled with long Covid. Not exactly the fittest driver so they just can't keep up with these heavy cars. Normal service of Lewis beating George won't resume unfortunately.

It’s not his age.

See Will Power and Scott Dixon in Indy Car (both 43yo), which are much more physical to drive. Less peak g forces but no power steering. Indy also races on bumpier circuits.

Most F1 drivers have to bulk up with muscle when going over. Ovals are also brutal in terms of sustained g forces (3-3.5g’s for sustained periods, 4x a lap, for 500 miles) and races near twice as long as a F1 race.

I’ve been rooting for Lewis since his GP2 days, but you also can’t ignore George’s record and he’s at his peak, George will never be faster than he is right now. Regardless of all this, they are near each other every qualifying / race session.

All this distracts from the dumpster fire that is the engineering departments at Mercedes. George and Lewis aren’t even remotely close to being problems for the Merc team.

Take Lewis or George out of the team, and Merc looks like a bigger dumpster fire, because having both of them maximizes, in most races, their results.

Reflexes will deteriate with age. Its best to compare F1 to track and field. That's the level of physicality that's important. Reflex and speed.
Runners peak in their mid 20s. Become masters of their event in their late 20s and early 30s on the 200m to 400m; the longer sprints, and then decline mid 30s. Those who compete in their late 30s can put in a few good runs and get some wins, but they arent banging in race wins all season.

[Hoffman900]

It's his age. See Alonso at the back too. Not mention he's also riddled with long Covid. Not exactly the fittest driver so they just can't keep up with these heavy cars. Normal service of Lewis beating George won't resume unfortunately.

It’s not his age.

See Will Power and Scott Dixon in Indy Car (both 43yo), which are much more physical to drive. Less peak g forces but no power steering. Indy also races on bumpier circuits.

Most F1 drivers have to bulk up with muscle when going over. Ovals are also brutal in terms of sustained g forces (3-3.5g’s for sustained periods, 4x a lap, for 500 miles) and races near twice as long as a F1 race.

I’ve been rooting for Lewis since his GP2 days, but you also can’t ignore George’s record and he’s at his peak, George will never be faster than he is right now. Regardless of all this, they are near each other every qualifying / race session.

All this distracts from the dumpster fire that is the engineering departments at Mercedes. George and Lewis aren’t even remotely close to being problems for the Merc team.

Take Lewis or George out of the team, and Merc looks like a bigger dumpster fire, because having both of them maximizes, in most races, their results.

Reflexes will deteriate with age. Its best to compare F1 to track and field. That's the level of physicality that's important. Reflex and speed.
Runners peak in their mid 20s. Become masters of their event in their late 20s and early 30s on the 200m to 400m; the longer sprints, and then decline mid 30s. Those who compete in their late 30s can put in a few good runs and get some wins, but they arent banging in race wins all season.

Those are anaerobic sports, F1 isn’t.

Reflexes matter, but I think we’re still splitting hairs.