2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[atanatizante]

It seems that in FP3 top teams, except Ferrari, were trying to feel how the car behaved between a 1-stop and a 2-stop race setup seeing that each team's drivers being 7,8,9 tenths between them ...

Worth mentioning that the first hot lap was the fastest for all faster drivers, meaning they could warm up the tyres sooner and get them into their optimum working window hence they were simulating a 2-stop race setup, coz here the wear is higher than usual.

HAM seems to have a better car now after the sim session that Vesti did in the late night hours, but the car has no bite to the front end ... maybe the setup didn't allow the car to get the fronts faster - as RUS did - into their window and again had some understeer but not to the degree he had on Friday, which presumably was dialed in in order to protect the rear tyres ... so all those above signs tell us that the car was setup for a 1-stop race and we will see that tomorrow if that was the case or not ...

Now looking back to last year's race when 2-stops seemed to be the better strategy here and bearing in mind that there is another DRS zone but mostly there is a high chance of an SC/VSC phase it didn`t seem to be a far-fetched scenario after all, don`t you think guys?

This does make a huge amount of sense...but also 0.8 over a race distance means the 1 stopper will be out by 40 seconds at the end of the grand prix. So 2 stop is the way to go then?

Is not that straight forward as the calculation are ... on the paper 1 stop is faster still but so was last year and you know what happened... so there are a lot of variables around and another one could be the weather at the race time...

[DGP123]

P3 Ham
P4 Rus

Great result. Lewis stepped up

[214270]

P3 Ham
P4 Rus

Great result. Lewis stepped up

Clean pair of heels over RUS every session in difficult circumstances. They have RUS, HAMs tyres lol

[SKYnRacing24]

Great recovery Lewis.Russell was struggling but brought himself back into it. Good job by Merc.

[j_ste]

3-4 is quite awesome…if they had a car to really challenge with, it would be over for the rest in the WCC

[Tvetovnato]

Looking forward to tomorrow when they are the 7th fastest car on track in the first stint and half a second faster than the leader at the end without knowing why.

But let’s see tomorrow. IF they get into the window, they might as well be contenders for victory.

[Luscion]

What a turn around from Lewis, absolutely nowhere all weekend. for once he didnt lose performance in Q3 and put together a good lap

[214270]

Looking forward to tomorrow when they are the 7th fastest car on track in the first stint and half a second faster than the leader at the end without knowing why.

But let’s see tomorrow. IF they get into the window, they might as well be contenders for victory.

It’s Singers bud, no one will be close to max pace. They just need to keep it clean

[organic]

Lewis outperforming the car again

[Luscion]

His first run in Q3 was actually faster in the first two sectors, shame Carlos crashed during it

[erudite450]

Looking forward to tomorrow when they are the 7th fastest car on track in the first stint and half a second faster than the leader at the end without knowing why.

But let’s see tomorrow. IF they get into the window, they might as well be contenders for victory.

Yeah, I am not keeping my fingers crossed but let's see. If the pace is decent, with a clean getaway they can put the top 2 under pressure having both cars in the fight.

[Hammerfist]

Good recovery. Especially by Lewis who was nowhere yesterday. Should be an interesting race. Last year Sainz held up the pack the whole race but with the extra drs zone it might be hard to replicate that.

[Tvetovnato]

Looking forward to tomorrow when they are the 7th fastest car on track in the first stint and half a second faster than the leader at the end without knowing why.

But let’s see tomorrow. IF they get into the window, they might as well be contenders for victory.

It’s Singers bud, no one will be close to max pace. They just need to keep it clean

True… they have the possibility to try something strategically different now with two cars up there also.

[Lasssept]

HAM - P3

Whaaat ?

[DGP123]

HAM - P3

Whaaat ?

Two hours ago, according to some, he was finished, needed retiring, and was going to be embarrassed by Russell in Q.

Love this thread.