2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Luscion]

Why does this thread always devolve into lewis v george, cant we just enjoy the front row lock out

You are right but most of the Merc fans are actually Hamilton fans and we want him to be ahead. That is my opinion, could be different for others

Spot on tbh, the reason why im giving Hamilton alot of crap is because i want him to show his best against Russell but damn Russell is a demon and is making Hamilton look second rate this year lool people have been waiting since 2007 to discredit Hamilton's achievements and call him a fraud and i have nothing to use to say " he still got it " thats the disheartening thing. It used to be Hamilton sneaking these poles and wins in now George " Chad chin " Russell taking every ounce of opportunity to maximise results.

Im not deluded like some fans on here, deep down i know Hamilton's on his way to the scrapyard. Quick here and there but he can't bring this level of performance against these youngers week in week out.

Hamilton has been improving his quali, p3 in spain, p5 in austria, p2 in silverstone, sure he's not as fast as he once was and seems to still be struggling but acting like he's awful now and Merc should be happy to get rid of him is crazy

[Dunlay]

You are right but most of the Merc fans are actually Hamilton fans and we want him to be ahead. That is my opinion, could be different for others

Spot on tbh, the reason why im giving Hamilton alot of crap is because i want him to show his best against Russell but damn Russell is a demon and is making Hamilton look second rate this year lool people have been waiting since 2007 to discredit Hamilton's achievements and call him a fraud and i have nothing to use to say " he still got it " thats the disheartening thing. It used to be Hamilton sneaking these poles and wins in now George " Chad chin " Russell taking every ounce of opportunity to maximise results.

Im not deluded like some fans on here, deep down i know Hamilton's on his way to the scrapyard. Quick here and there but he can't bring this level of performance against these youngers week in week out.

Hamilton has been improving his quali, p3 in spain, p5 in austria, p2 in silverstone, sure he's not as fast as he once was and seems to still be struggling but acting like he's awful now and Merc should be happy to get rid of him is crazy

Anyone that is going to replace Lewis would have to eat himble pie against George. I don't think anyone can be as close as Lewis is. It's amazing that Lewis has still got so much pace to be so close to George. If the car gives confidence, then he can still give run for money to these young drivers. That's why he and Alonso are legendary. Hope Ferrari can get their act together to provide similar opportunity to Lewis.

[SKYnRacing24]

You are right but most of the Merc fans are actually Hamilton fans and we want him to be ahead. That is my opinion, could be different for others

Spot on tbh, the reason why im giving Hamilton alot of crap is because i want him to show his best against Russell but damn Russell is a demon and is making Hamilton look second rate this year lool people have been waiting since 2007 to discredit Hamilton's achievements and call him a fraud and i have nothing to use to say " he still got it " thats the disheartening thing. It used to be Hamilton sneaking these poles and wins in now George " Chad chin " Russell taking every ounce of opportunity to maximise results.

Im not deluded like some fans on here, deep down i know Hamilton's on his way to the scrapyard. Quick here and there but he can't bring this level of performance against these youngers week in week out.

Hamilton has been improving his quali, p3 in spain, p5 in austria, p2 in silverstone, sure he's not as fast as he once was and seems to still be struggling but acting like he's awful now and Merc should be happy to get rid of him is crazy

I am grateful hes still showing flashes of speed. He hasn't dropped off like Vettel or Raikkonen did. Merc stuck with there guns and qualy by qualy race by race they have been validated with Lewis's depature. Wether thats through the data or other circumstances, his input and experience will not be missed as the car and Russell's side of the garage are optimised.

At the end of the day you can't really discredit my opinion that Hamilton is not what he was. Its been evident through the backend of 23 into this year. He can't take the car to the limit like Russell can and that S2 on there onboard laps proves my theory.

[214270]

Surely, they go backwards tomorrow? True race pace deficit still remains regardless of what the practice times show.

Btw. Great wkend so far for team Mercedes with ANT winning the sprint too.

Lando said he thought Merc were just as quick as them yesterday, whether he meant just quali or in race pace as well not sure, but Lewis and George both seemed confident in their interviews right after getting out the cars

I posted their Fri interviews and I think they expressed work still to do. FP3 was wet, so I don’t know that they’ve been able to validate their overnight work. I’d say on the balance of this season there will be a deficit on race pace tomorrow regardless of what the practice times indicate if it’s dry. If it’s wet though…

[Mosin123]

Spot on tbh, the reason why im giving Hamilton alot of crap is because i want him to show his best against Russell but damn Russell is a demon and is making Hamilton look second rate this year lool people have been waiting since 2007 to discredit Hamilton's achievements and call him a fraud and i have nothing to use to say " he still got it " thats the disheartening thing. It used to be Hamilton sneaking these poles and wins in now George " Chad chin " Russell taking every ounce of opportunity to maximise results.

Im not deluded like some fans on here, deep down i know Hamilton's on his way to the scrapyard. Quick here and there but he can't bring this level of performance against these youngers week in week out.

Hamilton has been improving his quali, p3 in spain, p5 in austria, p2 in silverstone, sure he's not as fast as he once was and seems to still be struggling but acting like he's awful now and Merc should be happy to get rid of him is crazy

I am grateful hes still showing flashes of speed. He hasn't dropped off like Vettel or Raikkonen did. Merc stuck with there guns and qualy by qualy race by race they have been validated with Lewis's depature. Wether thats through the data or other circumstances, his input and experience will not be missed as the car and Russell's side of the garage are optimised.

At the end of the day you can't really discredit my opinion that Hamilton is not what he was. Its been evident through the backend of 23 into this year. He can't take the car to the limit like Russell can and that S2 on there onboard laps proves my theory.

Has GR not said he goes through LH data every practise sessions with the " team " to find the ( optimal ) braking points, lines and so on that LH uses? i swear i remeber the interview just a few weeks ago.......

Not taking away any thing from GR though, he was considered " Mr Saturday " way before he even joined Merc, so its not shocking with the full backing of the team and being n1 he is beating LH, who wont be in the " full " team technical meetings or debriefs.

[Hammerfist]

Spot on tbh, the reason why im giving Hamilton alot of crap is because i want him to show his best against Russell but damn Russell is a demon and is making Hamilton look second rate this year lool people have been waiting since 2007 to discredit Hamilton's achievements and call him a fraud and i have nothing to use to say " he still got it " thats the disheartening thing. It used to be Hamilton sneaking these poles and wins in now George " Chad chin " Russell taking every ounce of opportunity to maximise results.

Im not deluded like some fans on here, deep down i know Hamilton's on his way to the scrapyard. Quick here and there but he can't bring this level of performance against these youngers week in week out.

Hamilton has been improving his quali, p3 in spain, p5 in austria, p2 in silverstone, sure he's not as fast as he once was and seems to still be struggling but acting like he's awful now and Merc should be happy to get rid of him is crazy

Anyone that is going to replace Lewis would have to eat himble pie against George. I don't think anyone can be as close as Lewis is. It's amazing that Lewis has still got so much pace to be so close to George. If the car gives confidence, then he can still give run for money to these young drivers. That's why he and Alonso are legendary. Hope Ferrari can get their act together to provide similar opportunity to Lewis.

I'm very very worried about Ferrari. Who would have thought.

[Luscion]

Q: “do you have belief in the long-run pace of the car?”

Lewis Hamilton: “Well, I think I was cautious with my set-up, more thinking to have a nice balance in the race rather than all for one particular lap. So I do think that the car will be good tomorrow, yeah.”

Q: “you mentioned the struggles Q1, Q2. Did the car change much ahead of Q3 for that big transformation?”

George Russell: “Q1 and Q2, we were just not trying to use our new Soft tyres to allow us to have the two new sets for Q3. And I think we've also saved one set of new Softs for the race tomorrow. So the Soft is a potential race tyre. So when you've got cars that are slightly slower than you throwing tyres at it, you're just always on that back foot. And that was kind of the reasoning for it.”

Q: “How different is this car to drive compared to a couple of months ago?”

Lewis Hamilton: “Massive difference.”

Q: Where is it different?

LH: “Everywhere. It's just better everywhere. From Bahrain, for example, the car felt terrible, and the progress that we made in terms of dialling and fine-tuning the car to optimise the aero package.”

[SKYnRacing24]

Wow huge respect to Merc for turning the car around and where not even half way through the season lol Make the most of it Lewis because i dont know wtf Ferrari are doing currently lool

[Jdn1327]

Surely, they go backwards tomorrow? True race pace deficit still remains regardless of what the practice times show.

Btw. Great wkend so far for team Mercedes with ANT winning the sprint too.

Lando said he thought Merc were just as quick as them yesterday, whether he meant just quali or in race pace as well not sure, but Lewis and George both seemed confident in their interviews right after getting out the cars

I posted their Fri interviews and I think they expressed work still to do. FP3 was wet, so I don’t know that they’ve been able to validate their overnight work. I’d say on the balance of this season there will be a deficit on race pace tomorrow regardless of what the practice times indicate if it’s dry. If it’s wet though…

Actually a little worried about long run pace for both mercs. Ham was up by about 0.2 on Russell but down on norris by 0.6. I don't know how representative that is from fp2. If Ver floor can be replaced...im sure best chance is a solid 3 and 4 tomorrow. If it rains...who knows.

[K1Plus]

Lando said he thought Merc were just as quick as them yesterday, whether he meant just quali or in race pace as well not sure, but Lewis and George both seemed confident in their interviews right after getting out the cars

I posted their Fri interviews and I think they expressed work still to do. FP3 was wet, so I don’t know that they’ve been able to validate their overnight work. I’d say on the balance of this season there will be a deficit on race pace tomorrow regardless of what the practice times indicate if it’s dry. If it’s wet though…

Actually a little worried about long run pace for both mercs. Ham was up by about 0.2 on Russell but down on norris by 0.6. I don't know how representative that is from fp2. If Ver floor can be replaced...im sure best chance is a solid 3 and 4 tomorrow. If it rains...who knows.

Norris himself said Mercedes weren't running higher modes IIRC, but that they're on the pace close with them

[zibby43]

Silverstone has always suited Mercedes in recent years. Cold temperatures have also helped.

Real test will be at upcoming tracks like Hungary and Spa.

Merc have been dominant in Hungary in recent years and strong even in ground effect (2/3 in the race in 2022 and HAM pole last year). That circuit is more tailor-made for them than any other circuit now. It has become all medium speed corners. I legitimately expect another front row lockout there.

Also, three different circuits now where Merc have been a top 2/3 car (4 if we count Canada). There’s enough evidence to show they’ve obviously found the correct path for the first time in this ground effect era.

Austria they deserved to be 3rd on the road, 10s down, but that’s been a nightmare circuit for them where they’ve performed worse than that when they were dominant. Double DNF in ‘18 and Lewis a distance 5th in ‘19 - 22s behind P1.

RB and McLaren are clearly still the fastest cars overall, but Merc are nipping at the heels of McLaren and improving at a rate that McLaren were improving at in 2023.

Exciting stuff.

[Matt2725]

Hamilton has been improving his quali, p3 in spain, p5 in austria, p2 in silverstone, sure he's not as fast as he once was and seems to still be struggling but acting like he's awful now and Merc should be happy to get rid of him is crazy

I am grateful hes still showing flashes of speed. He hasn't dropped off like Vettel or Raikkonen did. Merc stuck with there guns and qualy by qualy race by race they have been validated with Lewis's depature. Wether thats through the data or other circumstances, his input and experience will not be missed as the car and Russell's side of the garage are optimised.

At the end of the day you can't really discredit my opinion that Hamilton is not what he was. Its been evident through the backend of 23 into this year. He can't take the car to the limit like Russell can and that S2 on there onboard laps proves my theory.

Has GR not said he goes through LH data every practise sessions with the " team " to find the ( optimal ) braking points, lines and so on that LH uses? i swear i remeber the interview just a few weeks ago.......

Not taking away any thing from GR though, he was considered " Mr Saturday " way before he even joined Merc, so its not shocking with the full backing of the team and being n1 he is beating LH, who wont be in the " full " team technical meetings or debriefs.

That would imply George is better at driving Hamilton's style than Hamilton is. A silly assumption to make.

Hamilton will be looking at GR's data as much as the other way around, let's not pretend otherwise.

[Hammerfist]

Lando said he thought Merc were just as quick as them yesterday, whether he meant just quali or in race pace as well not sure, but Lewis and George both seemed confident in their interviews right after getting out the cars

I posted their Fri interviews and I think they expressed work still to do. FP3 was wet, so I don’t know that they’ve been able to validate their overnight work. I’d say on the balance of this season there will be a deficit on race pace tomorrow regardless of what the practice times indicate if it’s dry. If it’s wet though…

Actually a little worried about long run pace for both mercs. Ham was up by about 0.2 on Russell but down on norris by 0.6. I don't know how representative that is from fp2. If Ver floor can be replaced...im sure best chance is a solid 3 and 4 tomorrow. If it rains...who knows.

More worried about a Russell train. Lewis stuck in his drs or behind him for the first stint which then allows Mclaren and Redbull to undercut easily. I felt like in Canada we never saw mercs true pace as Lewis was stuck for too long behind Alonso. we may see a repeat of that here.And of course Merc will never tell George to let him through in such circumstance. I feel they’re going to blow this one on strategy. Hope I’m wrong.

[Matt2725]

I posted their Fri interviews and I think they expressed work still to do. FP3 was wet, so I don’t know that they’ve been able to validate their overnight work. I’d say on the balance of this season there will be a deficit on race pace tomorrow regardless of what the practice times indicate if it’s dry. If it’s wet though…

Actually a little worried about long run pace for both mercs. Ham was up by about 0.2 on Russell but down on norris by 0.6. I don't know how representative that is from fp2. If Ver floor can be replaced...im sure best chance is a solid 3 and 4 tomorrow. If it rains...who knows.

More worried about a Russell train. Lewis stuck in his drs or behind him for the first stint which then allows Mclaren and Redbull to undercut easily. I felt like in Canada we never saw mercs true pace as Lewis was stuck for too long behind Alonso. we may see a repeat of that here.And of course Merc will never tell George to let him through in such circumstance. I feel they’re going to blow this one on strategy. Hope I’m wrong.

Considering Russell's race pace has been almost identical to Lewis since Monaco, I think Lewis needs to be more concerned about keeping up if he doesn't get ahead on the start.

[AR3-GP]

GR: I think we’ve made some small changes, which have had a big impact. We knew from the start of this year, the baseline of this car is substantially better than what we’ve had in previous years. But we went from having an oversteer car last year, then to an understeer car this year. And now we’ve just dialled it back and found the happy medium. When you’ve got the balance in a good place, the tyre temperatures are in the right window, and the lap time just really snowballs positively. It hasn’t been a substantial change, but it’s made a massive difference to the lap time.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2024/07/06 ... onference/