2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Dunlay]

Too much is too much too soon. If it fails straight away at the Merc, it could mean the end of the career, like Vandoorne, who were super talented. Williams would be safe bet for Antonelli.

If Kimi is a talent, putting him at Williams puts Merc at a disadvantage, as all the other teams will see for themselves and it'll be open season to sign him.

It doesn't really, if he's as talented as Toto believes he'll sign Kimi to a contract to drive for Mercedes. If Verstappen becomes an option? That's a headache for Toto to figure out.

What is Verstappen going to do if the car is a dog? If the car is good, then he already has George who can do the job. I don't think Toto's fascination with Max has anything to do with him changing Mercedes' fortune. It was simply about weakening Red Bull. Max is not stupid and he won't leave Red Bull for as long as they have a winning car, even if the winning is done by a lot of hard work on his part. It's a team centered around him and the characteristics of the car suit him.

He can't go to Mercedes and change the team's dynamics to revolve around him and the characteristics of the car to suit him, overnight. It's a long period of struggle to get to that and if George matches him like he has done with Lewis and often beats him, he should forget the team centering around him. There is that risk. Just like Lando said, he can't walk into Red Bull and beat Max, because of the same exact reasons and not because he isn't as competitive, it would be naive to expect Max walking in Mercedes and walking over George. Fan fascination aside, the reality could be very different.

So in all honesty, instead of waiting for Max, it would be logical to simply bring in Antonelli, if they think he is the star of the future. There is no point in wasting him in a dogsh!t like Williams.

[SKYnRacing24]

James Allison on Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying: “Lewis has not by accident been the best qualifier in the history of the sport because I think he's been the best driver in the sport. But he's struggling to make it stick this year by fine margins.”

“And I think to a degree, I was speculating this in an email I sent to the factory yesterday, that the current car tyre combo, not just us, across the pit lane, it doesn't like being hustled.”

“You almost get the best lap times when you're not trying. And you see every weekend, you'll see someone pop a lap time in free practice or in qualifying, in some session or other, you'll see some car and you think, well, how did that get there? And then they don't do it again.”

https://xcom/fiagirly/status/1803433416341258626

Appreciate the link but it doesn't work. Seems to me these sensitive pirelli tyres have such a short window of peak performance that Lewis's driving style can't utilise it consistently across a lap

[Luscion]

James Allison on Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying: “Lewis has not by accident been the best qualifier in the history of the sport because I think he's been the best driver in the sport. But he's struggling to make it stick this year by fine margins.”

“And I think to a degree, I was speculating this in an email I sent to the factory yesterday, that the current car tyre combo, not just us, across the pit lane, it doesn't like being hustled.”

“You almost get the best lap times when you're not trying. And you see every weekend, you'll see someone pop a lap time in free practice or in qualifying, in some session or other, you'll see some car and you think, well, how did that get there? And then they don't do it again.”

https://xcom/fiagirly/status/1803433416341258626

Appreciate the link but it doesn't work. Seems to me these sensitive pirelli tyres have such a short window of peak performance that Lewis's driving style can't utilise it consistently across a lap

Weird, the video where he talks about it, cant get the timestamps to work. (34 minutes 17secs in)




I'll preface, I'm not saying this is solely the reason for Lewis' struggles. Allison's theory does support/allign with whats happening with Lewis, He's been strong in practices over the last two weekends in Monaco and Canada then struggles in quali, Allison also believes its the reason neither driver improved on their last runs in Canada. Lewis also complained a few races ago about these being the most sensitive tires he's ever experienced in his time in F1.


Allison also addresses Lewis' comments about the feeling in the car going away from him come quali time, Allison saying he feels like it comes back to his theory that the cars dont like to be hustled but invited to interviewer to ask if others down the pitlane are experiencing this and says the tires are "fussy". Very well seems like it could be Lewis' driving style just not working with these tires in quali, either way its good info for Lewis (37mins 58 secs in)

[ringo]

Russel style is a mix of lewis and Button. It's smooth hand movements.
I think his strenght in qualy is tyre prep on the outlap. As James says George is super consistent at it.
I dont think Lewis will be that consistent. Just not sharp enough at 39 to be that eager and alert.

[Just_a_fan]

Russel style is a mix of lewis and Button. It's smooth hand movements.
I think his strenght in qualy is tyre prep on the outlap. As James says George is super consistent at it.
I dont think Lewis will be that consistent. Just not sharp enough at 39 to be that eager and alert.

Lewis has developed a tyre-whispering technique over the years ( remember how he used to be accused of burning through tyres in his early years in F1?) and that seems to be going against him with these tyres in qualifying. In the races, he comes back and generally finishes higher than he starts which suggests the overall pace is still there.

[PlatinumZealot]

For lewis it is all about 2026. Max will win in 2024 and again in 2025. The results this year are just a footnote in his legacy.

[taperoo2k]

If Kimi is a talent, putting him at Williams puts Merc at a disadvantage, as all the other teams will see for themselves and it'll be open season to sign him.

It doesn't really, if he's as talented as Toto believes he'll sign Kimi to a contract to drive for Mercedes. If Verstappen becomes an option? That's a headache for Toto to figure out.

What is Verstappen going to do if the car is a dog? If the car is good, then he already has George who can do the job. I don't think Toto's fascination with Max has anything to do with him changing Mercedes' fortune. It was simply about weakening Red Bull. Max is not stupid and he won't leave Red Bull for as long as they have a winning car, even if the winning is done by a lot of hard work on his part. It's a team centered around him and the characteristics of the car suit him.

He can't go to Mercedes and change the team's dynamics to revolve around him and the characteristics of the car to suit him, overnight. It's a long period of struggle to get to that and if George matches him like he has done with Lewis and often beats him, he should forget the team centering around him. There is that risk. Just like Lando said, he can't walk into Red Bull and beat Max, because of the same exact reasons and not because he isn't as competitive, it would be naive to expect Max walking in Mercedes and walking over George. Fan fascination aside, the reality could be very different.

So in all honesty, instead of waiting for Max, it would be logical to simply bring in Antonelli, if they think he is the star of the future. There is no point in wasting him in a dogsh!t like Williams.

If Max leaves Red Bull he'll be gambling on Mercedes having a better PU than Redbull. Besides no team is going to turn down signing Max.

[Luscion]

As planned, Mercedes brought a new floor to the Spanish GP this weekend, mainly focused on reducing weight.

Although it's a new floor, it's not on the update list because it's the same shape.

[ToffeeTyres]

I have a feeling Hamilton won’t show his speed in practice this weekend and will try give it everything in qualifying this time so George can’t read into his telemetry

[Luscion]

Motorsport also confirming merc does have a new floor, didnt need to be reported because its of the same shape as the previous floor but a lighter version of it

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/why- ... /10625565/

[Jurgen von Diaz]

I have a feeling Hamilton won’t show his speed in practice this weekend and will try give it everything in qualifying this time so George can’t read into his telemetry

Isn't Hamilton supposed to be the one who should read Russell's telemetry for qualifying?

[Luscion]

I have a feeling Hamilton won’t show his speed in practice this weekend and will try give it everything in qualifying this time so George can’t read into his telemetry

Isn't Hamilton supposed to be the one who should read Russell's telemetry for qualifying?

I think he's referring to George saying he couldn't do the times Lewis was doing in practice in Montreal, went and looked at his data and implimentes what he was doing with the tires

[Vaexa]

Formula One team Mercedes calls in police after anonymous email about 'sabotaging' Lewis Hamilton. Toto Wolff: "To all those lunatics out there, I would say: go and see a psychiatrist.

Full article translation:

BARCELONA - The Mercedes Formula 1 team has called in the police in the hope of finding out who sent an anonymous email last week about the racing team and the treatment of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in particular.

In that email, sent on the Monday after the Canadian Grand Prix, the anonymous sender claims that Hamilton is being sabotaged by the team now that he is leaving for Ferrari after this year. Team boss Toto Wolff in particular is being beaten (TL note: metaphor for being unduly criticised). The sender claims to be an employee of the team, something that Mercedes denies.

Mercedes has not been able to find out where the email came from and has now contacted the police. Salient detail: the email full of allegations was sent to the same list of people, including team bosses and media representatives, as earlier this year when an email was sent full of alleged WhatsApp traffic between Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and the woman who accuses him of sexual misconduct. The contents of that email were posted on the internet not long afterwards, which means that the list of people who were contacted at the time can also be found.

“We know this is not coming from an employee of our team and we receive an incredible number of emails like this,” says Wolff. “That is disturbing, especially when someone talks about death and things like that in such an email. That is why I said that we must investigate this fully and call the police. Online behavior like this must stop. People sitting behind their phones or computers cannot denigrate teams or drivers in this way. I don't know what kind of idiots are out there. Lewis has been part of this team for twelve years, we are friends and trust each other. I would like to say to all those crazy people out there: go see a psychiatrist.”

[Dunlay]

It's about time Mercedes took action, which if goes unpunished, would only increase in toxicity. Hopefully they can find the guilty and punish appropriately to set an example.

[ringo]

James on Beyond the Grid Podcast:

“This is more of an ‘oh God, how could we have been so dumb?!’ type moment, where you see the path forward and you should have seen it sooner!”

“The thing that has bedevilled us from the start of the year was that you could get the car okay in a slow corner, you could get it quite decent in a fast corner, but you couldn't get it good in both at the same time.

“What has changed in the last two or three races is that we've modified the car in such a way that it actually has a reasonable high to low-speed balance and a reasonable through-corner balance.

“It just means that the driver can trust both the front and rear axle in a fast corner and a slow corner and can trust it from when he hits the brakes at the beginning of the corner, all the way through the apex and out the other side.

“That balance is crucial to a driver, that they know whether the car is going to understeer or oversteer, and that it's going to follow the trajectory they're asking.”

This being said.. can we go back to zero pods?