Is Mercedes sandbagging 2014?

[xpensive]

How superior is Mercedes really, this entire season I have gotten this feeling that they often seem to struggle in practice,
then bounce back in qualification and on Sunday simply walk away with the race, unless they somehow f*ck up of course?

[Phillyred]

I think as a race weekend evolves they try to gauge the others around them knowing they have a little more in the bag to turn the wick up for qualy if need be. I imagine they are very aware of their reliability issues this season and being cautious at times and not so much other times.

[marcush.]

this is very similar to RedBull during their dominant phase .They short fueled and banked on the others not being able to follow close enough and so had to go into cruise mode quite often. When Mclaren started to push them more reliabilty woes poped up instantly.

[Pebblestone]

I say they're in "PU Saving Mode" more than sandbagging during practice sessions. There's no need to push the power unit unless necessary.

[MOWOG]

"PU Saving Mode"

That's very perceptive. As we get toward the tail end of the season, more and more teams will be doing everything they can to manage their available supply of engines, turbos, gearboxes, universal joints, steering wheels and tire warmers in accordance with FIA mandates. There's no doubt that grid penalties are in the offing for many in the last few races.

Managing the available hardware is part of the game these days, whether or not we as fans approve of the restrictions.

[Pebblestone]

"PU Saving Mode"

That's very perceptive. As we get toward the tail end of the season, more and more teams will be doing everything they can to manage their available supply of engines, turbos, gearboxes, universal joints, steering wheels and tire warmers in accordance with FIA mandates. There's no doubt that grid penalties are in the offing for many in the last few races.

Managing the available hardware is part of the game these days, whether or not we as fans approve of the restrictions.

Exactly, proactive resources management is a key battle at this point of the season.

Even with a Sunday configuration, I bet Mercedes engines are yet faster than what we've seen up to now. Then again, what's the need to overlap the competition to the checkered flag when a PU needs to last 4 races?

[xpensive]

I find it obvious they are sandbagging, as much as I understand that their PUs are not xactly the same as McLaren's.

[Kiril Varbanov]

I find it obvious they are sandbagging, as much as I understand that their PUs are not xactly the same as McLaren's.

True - Mercedes gives freedom to its customer teams to make custom PU configs, especially visible with Willaims - http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/ ... /1197.html

In AMG's case, it's a mix of less power (PU-wise) in FP and more fuel. Getting back through most FPs, you can clearly judge that Ferrari ran low on fuel, as opposed to, let's say, Williams and Merc. Moreover, the latter teams have clear indications their rivals are doing that. As the 2014 is pretty much decided (HAM vs. ROS & Williams vs. Red Bull), we can only hope that FIA will loose some rules and get everyone into roughly the same grounds in terms of power. But I guess the 'cost' card will come into play again... F1 really lost control over costs, but that's another topic.

[xpensive]

Good arguments Kiril, but the thing is that the additional 120 kW, available wherever, is so easily doctored by the MGU-H.

If I was in charge of Daimler/Mercedes/MHPE, I would never give the same program to McLaren as to the home team.

[Shrieker]

I think Hamilton was in cruise control looking after everything in the first half of the race today. When push came to shove, they turned everything all the way up and we saw the true pace of the car.

Since the start of the season I've been thinking their ERS/MGU package has traction control like ability - i think others do to some extent as well but Merc have perfected it before the start of the season.

[George-Jung]

And it looks like everybody is forgetting that Lewis was the only one on super softs..
Ofcourse he did en excellent job.. But please do see it in perspective.

[Pebblestone]

... Mercedes has strategically nothing to gain by showing its true power. The other motorists (including Honda) will probably see Benz's 2014 performance as a target to achieve with their respective PU development in regards to next season, while the German motorist will just need to turn the power switch up one notch to stay ahead.

[theWPTformula]

I think they turned down their PUs in general this weekend to save them a little, only for HAM to turn up the wick when he needed to. It would make sense at a track like Singapore to save the PU a bit as there is a risk of damaging components due to the higher air temperatures and humidity level. Most of the drivers' cockpits were reaching 55-60C alone.

[i70q7m7ghw]

Running 3 seconds a lap quicker than anyone else during the race today, is that sandbagging? And in Bahrain when they were fighting each other, and the rest of the field was left behind like they were in a different category? Is that sandbagging?

I think not. They run their own programme during the practice sessions. Fridays are generally long runs, and saturdays are about qualifying simulations. If you watch the actual sessions the cars are quick when they are on the circuit. The times published at the end of the sessions don't indicate when the lap was done. Sometimes they do their quick laps early, and then others do theirs later when the track conditions are better.

Bottom line, they never "struggle" in practice, it just may seem that way from the outside because we don't know what programme they are running.

[SiLo]

The qualifying at Singapore was certainly the closest its been, and they definitely weren't sandbagging then. But the tyres did play a part in it I think.

Is that the first time we have seen a non mercedes car at the top of the sheets in Q3 after the first runs this year?