This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
I think the cost cap has made the constructor title unimportant for top teams.
We are watching 11 teams spin narratives to sell stickers on their cars. Top teams used to spend double what they do now. A few million in prize money is fast eclipsed by a champion ressurection narrative as I expect sponsorship prices are lostly linked to driver lerformance.
I tend to agree. Mercedes won constructors title in abu dhabi 2021 but absolutely no one gave two squats about it - neither the public, neither mercedes themselves. WDC is where the glory is whereas WCC is just a money grab in a time when teams are flush with cash. Mclaren won WCC the other day and its already been forgotten.
Wouldn't be surprised if, and I am holding out hope for the possibility that, red bull bring a new floor in next few rounds. They finished manufacture of the Monza floor at the beginning of September, got track data a week into the month. I feel like it's feasible that within 2 months you could have another floor iteration ready, especially given that the Italy floor was a big step, indicating a new rich avenue of development was found.
Why not roll the dice and have one big push for the title? Vegas maybe they could have it - that'd be a very reasonable amount of time to get it done within. Brazil GP would be 2 months on from Monza..
Max adds: “We need to keep having perfect weekends to fight for the championship, so it is important to hit the ground running in Mexico. The circuit tends to suit our car and it will be all about managing our tyres and the grip
"The circuit tends to suit our car" - It's the little things when Max speaks. He wouldn't say it if they were not expecting to be competitive.
They were bad in Monza last year but they turned it around. I think they can turn it around here as well.
Well I always imagine if you change one bit on a car and you look at the CFD there has to be some bits you'd like to change in response.
Also, I imagine the design team being quite busy, but the manufacturing team not.
So as you have to pay their salary anyway, and some new stuff might make a difference, why not build something...
Max adds: “We need to keep having perfect weekends to fight for the championship, so it is important to hit the ground running in Mexico. The circuit tends to suit our car and it will be all about managing our tyres and the grip
"The circuit tends to suit our car" - It's the little things when Max speaks. He wouldn't say it if they were not expecting to be competitive.
They were bad in Monza last year but they turned it around. I think they can turn it around here as well.
Nice one. Not the usual "we just go in prepared. See how it looks in fp and maximise everything"
Friday was really bad last year with just a handful laps so while one lap pace was okay, they clearly struggled on raceday (while Max didn't help himself) so it can only get better this time.
In theory they could modify the floor to adapt it more specifically to the lower ground clearances expected in the last 4 weekends. A "track specific" floor. Such a floor development would not have to work on the raised ground clearances that you have to cope with in places like Spa, Singapore, Monaco, Austin so there could be gains from eliminating those compromises in the design. Speculative, but logical.
I think Mekies can see the writing on the wall with Yuki. I don't think it's his decision. His tone was different to previous weekends where he implied Yuki was close to Max (when he was not).
When asked about Tsunoda's deficit to Verstappen in the race, Mekies said: "We always want more. I'm not going to tell you it's good enough because you are right in quoting your numbers.
"I'm not going to tell you that it's good enough, nobody feels like that, Yuki doesn't feel like that.
"All I'm saying is that it's two races in the points, it's two very good starts, it's two very good first laps, and it's a progression compared to what has been shown so far this year.
"Is it good enough? No, I would lie if I was telling you that - and more so Yuki would not be happy if I was telling you this is good enough."
Indeed the writing surely must be on the wall with Yuki having scored 28 points vs Max 306.
It's not good enough, progress is one step forward one step back.
Pretty crazy to think that Max will have seen 3 drivers go within 12 months at the end of the year. He utterly crushed them all. Of course for Yuki it has been tough. First getting up to speed with a different car, then getting into the confidence drain loop by aways getting beaten, never catching a break. Hadjar is probably right in saying 2026 would be the optimal time to join RBR, although I doubt he will fare much better than any of the previous drivers.
So there is more reason for Mexico to be bad. Apparently all Mercedes engines will have to drop by nearly 20hp due to the engine failures from early in the season. A fix was made but it won't be enough to cope with the high altitudes. So I might skip this race entirely.
Ashwin is often receiving inside info (which often in retrospect is validated) so I'm cautiously optimistic about this
In Mexico, he revealed that the biggest difference now is that the car can be run “in a different configuration” - which many believe to mean, on a simple level, running closer to the ground - and this unlocks “quite a bit more pace” and less sliding on the tyres.
But it can also be set up more to Verstappen’s preference: “Naturally It gives me more confidence and it allows us to set up the car a little more aggressive, a little more on the nose without losing the rear for example.
