Is Mercedes sandbagging 2014?

[ScottB]

If Merc is sandbagging, they will be doing it for next season not 2014 because they know that the championship is over

Exactly my point - Mercedes didn't invest all that money for a single championship.

In all honesty, I fail miserably to understand either of these statements?

They aren't showing their maximum pace so the other teams use their current speed as a benchmark, letting them 'dial it up' next season if need be?

I suppose the FIA has a history of changing regs to slow cars down if they are too far in front, so underplaying their advantage makes some sense. Personally I think we saw their maximum pace at the end in Bahrain, and they've not really been allowed to do that since.

[SectorOne]

But CHT say "If Merc is sandbagging, they will be doing it for next season not 2014"

Which makes no sense in the world btw. Basically Mercedes won´t sandbag this year, but next year they will for whatever reason.
It´s easily the most confusing statement i have ever read so far.

[SiLo]

I think in races they are much faster than we see sometimes. Bahrain was an exception because the track suited them AND they were driving hard with engines turned up. I think Barcelona was more representative, but I can't remember how much faster they were there.

[Burgess]

50 odd seconds IIRC.

[CBeck113]

But CHT say "If Merc is sandbagging, they will be doing it for next season not 2014"

Which makes no sense in the world btw. Basically Mercedes won´t sandbag this year, but next year they will for whatever reason.
It´s easily the most confusing statement i have ever read so far.

I understood his statement oppositely - Mercedes is hiding this year's pace so they can maintain an advantage for next year, which is why I said that Merc wouldn't invest 600mil€ or so for a single title - their work should give them an advantage for at least two years, if not three, and they still can continue to develop while the others have to catch up first.

As Mel Brooks once said, "It's good to be da king!"

[jericho]

I think they are driving to a lead that is relatively 'save'. So let's say around 30 sec. If they have to, they can go much faster, but they do have to!

[SectorOne]

Mercedes is hiding this year's pace so they can maintain an advantage for next year,

But how do you turn that from this?

"If Merc is sandbagging, they will be doing it for next season not 2014"

I´m guessing CHT got a little crazy with the wording because both your statements contradict each other.

[mrluke]

"If Merc is sandbagging [at the moment], they will be doing it [to protect their advantage] for next season not [to hide their pace for the remaining races in] 2014."

EFA ?

[ChrisM40]

Seems to me that in terms of power train development and understanding they have the equivalent of a whole years jump on the rest of the field. I wonder if Renault and Ferrari will even be where Mercedes were in January this year next January.

I think they are sandbagging the PU even when they are trying this year, there is more the engineers aren't even letting the drivers have as an option because of minor reliability or packaging issues in the rest of the car.

[Kingshark]

The bags of sand came off Rosberg's car today. Had Pirelli brought Bridgestone-esque tyres all season long, the domination would have been even worse.

[SectorOne]

The tires are no different then previous iterations this year. It´s the tarmac that made them work the way they did.
And don´t think for one second anyone was going "flat out" at any point during the race.
Yes they could lean on them more but nobody did qualifying stints on them.

[Jolle]

With only 5 PU per season, it's a endurance race lasting a whole year. I think they constantly look at speed vs efficiency (very German )

The best tactics would be to win every race with a 1.1 second gap

[MOWOG]

The bags of sand came off Rosberg's car today.

Precisely. I found myself thinking the same thing as Rosberg rocketed through the field and even told his team he was having an easy time of it.

One could argue, based on Rosberg's performance today, that the Mercedes have a 2-3 second per lap edge on every other car in the field under most circumstances and simply don't want to show their full advantage in order not to add fuel to the call of the other teams for a relaxation of the engine freeze rules.

There is simply no other way to explain the ease with which Rosberg waltzed to P2 today.

[Kingshark]

In 1998, McLaren showed their full advantage right from the beginning. They lapped everyone in Australia, and put a minute between themselves and the rest of the field in Brazil. FIA banned their "brake steer" system, and their advantage shrunk. Ultimately, Ferrari closed the gap, and the championship went down to the wire in Suzuka.

People say that the 2011/2013 Red Bull cars weren't as dominant as the Ferrari cars from 2002 and 2004. I disagree, they were likely every bit as dominant. Newey didn't make the same mistake with Red Bull as he did with McLaren. Red Bull were clever not to ever show their true advantage. This is why Horner got mad whenever Vettel would go for FL near the end of every race, because they wanted to hide their true advantage.

Singapore 2013 was one of the rare occasions when Red Bull showed the full potential of their car. Result? 2 seconds/lap to the rest of the field. Likewise, In Abu Dhabi 2013 Vettel was again some 2 seconds/lap faster than anyone else before the team put him on a leash.

On only a few occasions this season did Mercedes show anywhere near their full potential, and even then, Merc have an engine mode which they aren't allowed to use when fighting only amongst each other (something that Lewis disobeyed in Barcelona and Nico in Bahrain).

[xpensive]

I'm glad that members of this great forum finally seem to get it, Rosberg's display yesterday made a mockery of racing.

Hats off to MHPE for a fantastic PU, if only Ferrari and Renault were given the chance to catch up.