2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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venkyhere
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Joined: 10 Feb 2024, 06:17

Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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I think Toto misses Horner.
There is nobody to play 'my BS is better than yours' games with him now.

Badger
Badger
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Whilst it's obvious he doesn't believe what he is saying, it's interesting he is choosing RBPT as his foil and not Ferrari.

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AnthonyG
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Y-250.A wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 15:04
I appreciate the posted tweet, but could you also provide a translation next time?
Thank you really doesn't really describe enough what I feel. - Vettel

Y-250.A
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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AnthonyG wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 15:48
Y-250.A wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 15:04
I appreciate the posted tweet, but could you also provide a translation next time?
Wolff just spoke about the current engine discussions: "We've taken all the assurances that everything we're doing complies with the rules. What we're talking about isn't even a massive performance boost. That's the situation, but I reckon all our rivals got a bit miffed and lobbied the FIA for a long time."

"This lobbying activity has ramped up considerably over the last few months. So secret meetings, secret letters written to the FIA—when in this sport there's no such thing as secret... That's what's brought things to this point."

"There's a governance process. If that governance votes for a change to the engine regulations, you've got to accept it. It is what it is. This would be detrimental to all the teams running Mercedes engines in such a scenario."

"The benefit this brings us is just a few horsepower."

"We'll always respect the sport's management. If the sport's management makes a decision against or in favour of our position, we've got to comply with either."

Y-250.A
Y-250.A
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Badger wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 15:39
Whilst it's obvious he doesn't believe what he is saying, it's interesting he is choosing RBPT as his foil and not Ferrari.
simply cuz they are the one who tried to copy them and they failed :lol:

Badger
Badger
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Y-250.A wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 16:23
Badger wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 15:39
Whilst it's obvious he doesn't believe what he is saying, it's interesting he is choosing RBPT as his foil and not Ferrari.
simply cuz they are the one who tried to copy them and they failed :lol:
Where is the coherence in that?

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Lasssept
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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venkyhere
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Image

SB15
SB15
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Lasssept wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 15:04
:-({|=

Were winning by 40 seconds lmao :lol:

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Lasssept
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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:-({|=
George Russell: We've had a difficult first day here in Bahrain. We had a solid three days on track in Barcelona, but we haven't hit the ground running here in the Middle East. We were experimenting with the overall balance of the car this morning, but it didn't feel as responsive as it did in Spain. That is partly to do with the higher track temperatures but there's work for us to do to get the W17 into a happier place.
Andrew Shovlin: George had an interrupted session in the morning. We had several issues that meant we were late getting out first thing; that was due to a few changes in the garage that we hadn't done before during a session and that took a bit longer than expected. On top of that, the car balance wasn't great causing challenges with brake locking, poor traction and general inconsistency.

Kimi took over after lunch and during the various changes, we discovered an issue on the suspension that required further investigation. That cost us a couple of hours and, once we had left the garage, we only had time remaining for two sets of the hardest tyre to baseline the car and work on our long running.

We're still learning how the W17 behaves and clearly have a bit of work to do to get in back in the right window. Thankfully, we've got two more days of running this week and are not short of ideas, so hopefully can take a good step forward tomorrow.

Matt2725
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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I think it's perhaps a little premature to wave the white flag and play the violin as the ship goes down.

FittingMechanics
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Apparently they were "fixing" the suspension with a hammer (according to Sam Collins of F1TV)

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Chuckjr
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Too bad all the compression hype has resulted this. Clearly Merc have moved to full "play it down" mode rather than a calm confidence. I expect this kind of approach to the media the rest of testing, and they won't show real speed till Q2/Q3 in Oz.
Watching F1 since 1986.

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venkyhere
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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Toto Wolff, just like every other team principal (perhaps more so) is jumping with glee at the first opportunity to declare themselves 'underdog'.
To under-promise and then overdeliver. So that it looks like the team 'rallied to a war cry' and 'delivered when it mattered'.
It's all typical PR BS. Has been happening for decades in F1.

f1isgood
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Re: 2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

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venkyhere wrote:
11 Feb 2026, 22:11
Toto Wolff, just like every other team principal (perhaps more so) is jumping with glee at the first opportunity to declare themselves 'underdog'.
To under-promise and then overdeliver. So that it looks like the team 'rallied to a war cry' and 'delivered when it mattered'.
It's all typical PR BS. Has been happening for decades in F1.
Neither McLaren nor Mercedes are underdogs going into this year. Mclaren come off two titles and with Mercedes engine which was rumored to be the best as early as mid last year. Mercedes with a new engine must have a large manufacturer and packaging advantage as well.

Toto can try all he wants but the reality has been that it's theirs to lose for a good while now.
The FIA folds on a royal flush.