2025 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Lasssept]

Russell:

“I am feeling exited and confident for the first race, not saying we’re going to be fighting straightaway for victories, but hoping to be in that fight for a podium, and see how we can progress…”

[Venturiation]

Russell:

“I am feeling exited and confident for the first race, not saying we’re going to be fighting straightaway for victories, but hoping to be in that fight for a podium, and see how we can progress…”

Never trust what he says
George Russell: Mercedes can fight for Spanish GP win
https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/4040 ... ish-gp-win

[Henri]

Interesting. New DtS episode has a segment with Toto Wolff, where it comes to light that Toto had made a promise that he would not sign Verstappen as long as Hamilton was at the team. I guess Ham didn't want to face Max in the same team which is understandable



Makes sense now why Toto was suddenly very outspoken about his praise of Verstappen after being essentially silent on him for the previous years.

Lol Lewis wanted to sign for redbull in 2023 and marko and max vetoed it.. why did max veto sainz if his so great

Many top drivers are doing it. Hamilton wanted to keep Russell away from Mercedes but naturally couldn't do anything about it because Russell was a Mercedes junior. After that Hamilton wanted protection from Verstappen. The surprising thing is that Mercedes was a mid-tier team and Verstappen was in the best team and still needed assurance to keep Verstappen not jumping from the dominant team to a mid-tier team.

Let max verstappen get a top teammate than talk

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Lol Lewis wanted to sign for redbull in 2023 and marko and max vetoed it.. why did max veto sainz if his so great

Many top drivers are doing it. Hamilton wanted to keep Russell away from Mercedes but naturally couldn't do anything about it because Russell was a Mercedes junior. After that Hamilton wanted protection from Verstappen. The surprising thing is that Mercedes was a mid-tier team and Verstappen was in the best team and still needed assurance to keep Verstappen not jumping from the dominant team to a mid-tier team.

Let max verstappen get a top teammate than talk

If we are accurate, we don't know if Max has even said that he doesn't want Sainz. The team has said that it wants harmony. In Merc's case, it was Hamilton who said he wanted Bottas rather than Russell, and Toto needs to keep his promise not to tempt Verstappen to join his team.

[ringo]

Lol Lewis wanted to sign for redbull in 2023 and marko and max vetoed it.. why did max veto sainz if his so great

Many top drivers are doing it. Hamilton wanted to keep Russell away from Mercedes but naturally couldn't do anything about it because Russell was a Mercedes junior. After that Hamilton wanted protection from Verstappen. The surprising thing is that Mercedes was a mid-tier team and Verstappen was in the best team and still needed assurance to keep Verstappen not jumping from the dominant team to a mid-tier team.

Let max verstappen get a top teammate than talk

Indeed. Quite a bit was said there that is not historically correct about Russell and Max.
"Protection" and "keeping away".

Kimi seems good but i am not sure if he can beat Russell over a race and with strategy or wheel to wheel. Kimi is showing raw pace that we know.
But anything can happen in F1. He may well foil Russell's plans of consistent podiums or wins.

[Venturiation]

But even if the internal performance targets have been achieved, that doesn't automatically mean that the new Silver Arrow is a World Championship candidate again. Formula 1 is a relative business. If the others develop even better, your own progress is of little use. In this case, McLaren seems to have pulled well ahead of its direct competitors. The Mercedes engineers were shocked to discover that the gap on the long runs was between half a second and a whole second.

In a direct comparison of the race simulations, George Russell would have finished 20 seconds behind Oscar Piastri, who was driving parallel on the final day. Andrea Kimi Antonelli shared the track with Lando Norris in his test race on the second day. In the end, he was half a minute behind. These are worlds of difference in Formula 1 that are not easy to make up.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... ueckstand/

[Matt2725]

Before you get yourself too excited for their continued downfall, let's wait to see what the score is.

You forgot to highlight the quote about Mercedes using setups deliberately not suited to Bahrain.
We know others would have done the same, but it doesn't help to give an accurate projection of overall pace.

I don't expect them to be winning every weekend, but they also won't be 0.5 to 1 second off.
Also mentioned are how they're on pace with the other top teams. The gap won't be that big from McLaren to the chasing teams, I would be confident in that.

[Henri]

Before you get yourself too excited for their continued downfall, let's wait to see what the score is.

You forgot to highlight the quote about Mercedes using setups deliberately not suited to Bahrain.
We know others would have done the same, but it doesn't help to give an accurate projection of overall pace.

I don't expect them to be winning every weekend, but they also won't be 0.5 to 1 second off.
Also mentioned are how they're on pace with the other top teams. The gap won't be that big from McLaren to the chasing teams, I would be confident in that.

They wont McLaren was on average and last race last seaspn where 5 tenths faster than Mercedes withvthe same engine.. Mercedes floor is the weakest of the top 4 teams

[nitrotech]

Before you get yourself too excited for their continued downfall, let's wait to see what the score is.

You forgot to highlight the quote about Mercedes using setups deliberately not suited to Bahrain.
We know others would have done the same, but it doesn't help to give an accurate projection of overall pace.

I don't expect them to be winning every weekend, but they also won't be 0.5 to 1 second off.
Also mentioned are how they're on pace with the other top teams. The gap won't be that big from McLaren to the chasing teams, I would be confident in that.

They wont McLaren was on average and last race last seaspn where 5 tenths faster than Mercedes withvthe same engine.. Mercedes floor is the weakest of the top 4 teams

Their problem isn't about generating downforce or poor floor. Their problem has been about keeping consistent temperature across all the tyres and keeping them alive for a race stint. Whenever they managed to do that, for instance in Belgium's hot weather and in Vegas' cooler temperatures, they dominated. Their desperation is to figure out a suspension that can help them manage the tyre temperatures, regardless of the temperatures, and if they can do it more consistently, then their car can be lethal and a WDC challenger.

[OverheatedTurbo]

Before you get yourself too excited for their continued downfall, let's wait to see what the score is.

You forgot to highlight the quote about Mercedes using setups deliberately not suited to Bahrain.
We know others would have done the same, but it doesn't help to give an accurate projection of overall pace.

I don't expect them to be winning every weekend, but they also won't be 0.5 to 1 second off.
Also mentioned are how they're on pace with the other top teams. The gap won't be that big from McLaren to the chasing teams, I would be confident in that.

They wont McLaren was on average and last race last seaspn where 5 tenths faster than Mercedes withvthe same engine.. Mercedes floor is the weakest of the top 4 teams

Their problem isn't about generating downforce or poor floor. Their problem has been about keeping consistent temperature across all the tyres and keeping them alive for a race stint. Whenever they managed to do that, for instance in Belgium's hot weather and in Vegas' cooler temperatures, they dominated. Their desperation is to figure out a suspension that can help them manage the tyre temperatures, regardless of the temperatures, and if they can do it more consistently, then their car can be lethal and a WDC challenger.

That will come to light this weekend. We will see if the suspension changes remedied the tyre overheating issues.

[SB15]

Before you get yourself too excited for their continued downfall, let's wait to see what the score is.

You forgot to highlight the quote about Mercedes using setups deliberately not suited to Bahrain.
We know others would have done the same, but it doesn't help to give an accurate projection of overall pace.

I don't expect them to be winning every weekend, but they also won't be 0.5 to 1 second off.
Also mentioned are how they're on pace with the other top teams. The gap won't be that big from McLaren to the chasing teams, I would be confident in that.

They wont McLaren was on average and last race last seaspn where 5 tenths faster than Mercedes withvthe same engine.. Mercedes floor is the weakest of the top 4 teams

I don't know where you got this "Mercedes floor has the weakest floor of the top 4 teams" conclusion, when we seen them win 4 races (nearly 6 if George didn't mess up). We can all agree that their biggest issue last season was tyre temperature especially since there was a off-set between the front and rear during the course of Qualifying or a Race (Sprints Included).

[SB15]

But even if the internal performance targets have been achieved, that doesn't automatically mean that the new Silver Arrow is a World Championship candidate again. Formula 1 is a relative business. If the others develop even better, your own progress is of little use. In this case, McLaren seems to have pulled well ahead of its direct competitors. The Mercedes engineers were shocked to discover that the gap on the long runs was between half a second and a whole second.

In a direct comparison of the race simulations, George Russell would have finished 20 seconds behind Oscar Piastri, who was driving parallel on the final day. Andrea Kimi Antonelli shared the track with Lando Norris in his test race on the second day. In the end, he was half a minute behind. These are worlds of difference in Formula 1 that are not easy to make up.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... ueckstand/

I'm not jumping to any conclusions until the chequered flag is waved.

[Hammerfist]

Many top drivers are doing it. Hamilton wanted to keep Russell away from Mercedes but naturally couldn't do anything about it because Russell was a Mercedes junior. After that Hamilton wanted protection from Verstappen. The surprising thing is that Mercedes was a mid-tier team and Verstappen was in the best team and still needed assurance to keep Verstappen not jumping from the dominant team to a mid-tier team.

Let max verstappen get a top teammate than talk

If we are accurate, we don't know if Max has even said that he doesn't want Sainz. The team has said that it wants harmony. In Merc's case, it was Hamilton who said he wanted Bottas rather than Russell, and Toto needs to keep his promise not to tempt Verstappen to join his team.

LOL. Hamilton wanted Bottas to stay at Mercedes because he is a friend of his and he got along well with him. It's not that he didn't want Russell as a teammate. Hamilton does not care at all who his teammate is. Toto trying to make it seem that Lewis did not want Max to come is pure Toto bullshit. He has lost a lot of credibility in my eyes. IF Lewis did care who his teammate is he definitely would not choose to go to a team that features arguably the fastest driver in one lap at Ferrari. Verstappen just has never had a competitive teammate since Ricciardo left and became a bum. All we hear is that he does not want Sainz. In fairness Redbull was flirting with Norris and Norris did not want to go, so maybe Max indeed does not care also. But to think that Hamilton cares is definitely wrong.

[ringo]

Norris had potential at the time but he wasnt the finished product and had low self esteem. If it were 2025, Redbull would not want him in the team. Too competitive, too fast and believes in being wdc.

Lewis doesn't care who his teammate was or is.
He spent 3 years beating Nico, who was a dificult teammate mentally and politically. Nico succeeded in year 4 in 2016. Bottas was managed by Totto and was a thought to be super fast prodigy having soundly beaten Massa at Williams.

The main reason Max would not be wanted in mercedes is the 2021 debacle and the baggage of Jos that he comes with. Nothing to do with competition for Lewis. Totto was probably the more grudgeful one after 2021 and didnt want anything to do with Max and Horner.
Him attracting Max to Mercedes is only to piss of Horner. He didnt have any genuine inteterest in Max outside of mindgames against Christian.

Regarding the floor of the W16. I think the team sorted it out now. The floor can address the tyre loading issues actually. Theyre related.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

Let max verstappen get a top teammate than talk

If we are accurate, we don't know if Max has even said that he doesn't want Sainz. The team has said that it wants harmony. In Merc's case, it was Hamilton who said he wanted Bottas rather than Russell, and Toto needs to keep his promise not to tempt Verstappen to join his team.

LOL. Hamilton wanted Bottas to stay at Mercedes because he is a friend of his and he got along well with him. It's not that he didn't want Russell as a teammate. Hamilton does not care at all who his teammate is. Toto trying to make it seem that Lewis did not want Max to come is pure Toto bullshit. He has lost a lot of credibility in my eyes. IF Lewis did care who his teammate is he definitely would not choose to go to a team that features arguably the fastest driver in one lap at Ferrari. Verstappen just has never had a competitive teammate since Ricciardo left and became a bum. All we hear is that he does not want Sainz. In fairness Redbull was flirting with Norris and Norris did not want to go, so maybe Max indeed does not care also. But to think that Hamilton cares is definitely wrong.

Well lol, Bottas wasn't Hamilton's friend when Ocon was on the line to replace Bottas and Hamilton was silent? Russell came strongly against Bottas Bahrain 2020 and after that Bottas was suddenly Hamilton's friend and best teammate. Clearly Hamilton really cares who is his teammate.

When you switch team or want to drive Ferrari, you can't choose your teammate. But when you are champion in long-term deal in the same team, you care who your teammate is. This applies almoust every champion.