Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+

[siskue2005]

It was a suspension change in Spa, and then what they learned from the Spa race helped them solve their issues. I think Toto is quoted as saying that.

It also ties in with Ferrari having tyre issues and having to turn down their engines to make them last the season, whilst Merc are able to continue to run their engines in higher modes for longer.

How does that make sense? in a tight championship battle like this why dont ferrari run their special mode in just one lap in Q3 .....that would just make it 6 laps of special mode running for the rest of the season.
I dont believe reliability as an excuse for poor pace in qualifying too, maybe in race trim but not in qualifying

[Jolle]

It was a suspension change in Spa, and then what they learned from the Spa race helped them solve their issues. I think Toto is quoted as saying that.

It also ties in with Ferrari having tyre issues and having to turn down their engines to make them last the season, whilst Merc are able to continue to run their engines in higher modes for longer.

How does that make sense? in a tight championship battle like this why dont ferrari run their special mode in just one lap in Q3 .....that would just make it 6 laps of special mode running for the rest of the season.
I dont believe reliability as an excuse for poor pace in qualifying too, maybe in race trim but not in qualifying

It could be more a case of suspension setup. In the past few years we’ve seen Ferrari eating their tires after a good qualifying. If you play with stuff like camber a bit, you gain a lot of lap time but you’ll ruin your tires. Mercedes have been able to preserve their tires better with more extreme settings.

[dans79]

How does that make sense? in a tight championship battle like this why dont ferrari run their special mode in just one lap in Q3 .....that would just make it 6 laps of special mode running for the rest of the season.
I dont believe reliability as an excuse for poor pace in qualifying too, maybe in race trim but not in qualifying

You only have so many laps of the high modes, if you use more than your allotted number of laps, you are degrading the engines lifespan of an exponential or power loss style curve. Thus, they might have just used up all the high laps.

[dougskullery]

Anyone have any theories as to how Merc took such a massive step forward?

Better tyre management and therefore more options on strategy(?) Ever since the heater/cooler fins on the wheel rim showed up they haven't had the dramatic falloff of performance during the race.

Better tyre management did not give them the edge on one lap pace (despite their tyre management got better as well). Mercedes is the fastest car on slow corner parts at the moment and at the same time I don’t remember them having any problems at starts such as spinning wheels in recent races. So something gave them much better traction and that’s the big improve they made.
Better traction and better tyre management are two things influencing each other in a positive way anyway.

Hamilton had wheel spin at the start in Russia. It was only Bottas pulling right to give him the slipstream (and deny Vettel the same) that masked the poor start.

[siskue2005]

How does that make sense? in a tight championship battle like this why dont ferrari run their special mode in just one lap in Q3 .....that would just make it 6 laps of special mode running for the rest of the season.
I dont believe reliability as an excuse for poor pace in qualifying too, maybe in race trim but not in qualifying

You only have so many laps of the high modes, if you use more than your allotted number of laps, you are degrading the engines lifespan of an exponential or power loss style curve. Thus, they might have just used up all the high laps.

if at all the number of modes are numbered in their engine, why didnt they throw away one race and take an engine penalty and fight for wins in the 6 remaining races? instead they are throwing the towel on the championship? Like in sochi, they could have taken the penalty and still finish 4th, and now armed with the new engine they could have won all the remaining races......... I am sorry i dont buy the reliability story

[SiLo]

Tyres + resurgent Mercedes + Hamilton account for the quali pace difference. Where it was always fairly close anyway.

We are getting off topic now so I'll leave it there.

[toraabe]

http://www.f1hub.net/index.php/japanese ... uka/14121/

[siskue2005]

http://www.f1hub.net/index.php/japanese ... uka/14121/

From the article above

Mercedes find radical power unit ‘trick’ in Suzuka
A new report suggests the Mercedes Formula 1 team may have found a trick of its own in terms of power unit gains (or as many put it, “party mode) down the straights, which could be a key tool that help Mercedes move forward in qualifying. Data from the opening practice in Japan show that the two Mercedes F1 cars peaked at 312 and 311 kph at the end of the speed trap before 130R, which gave the team a significant level of top speed advantage over the rest. After Mercedes, Vettel’s Ferrari was third in the speed traps – peaking at only 302 kph, highlighting a rather unusual advantage for the world champions.

one look at the live timings from Q2 (took Q2 coz Vettel set his fastest lap at this point) timings shows that both Vettel and Lewis did manage to do 312 kph just before 130 R....... just goes to show what kind of click baiting false article that is the ferraris were just running old engines and lower modes in the practice session.
here is the live timing screenshot

[dans79]

Ha, that app isn't any better!

just goes to show what kind of click baiting false article that is the ferraris were just running old engines and lower modes in the practice session.

[siskue2005]

Ha, that app isn't any better!

just goes to show what kind of click baiting false article that is the ferraris were just running old engines and lower modes in the practice session.

the app is great, Juzh posts telemetry from it. check italian gp thread for videos of the app

[dans79]

Ha, that app isn't any better!

just goes to show what kind of click baiting false article that is the ferraris were just running old engines and lower modes in the practice session.

the app is great, Juzh posts telemetry from it. check italian gp thread for videos of the app

There is a huge difference between posting screenshots of the timing pages which match the official timing reports versus the "real time" map that is often wrong and glitchy as hell.

[aral]

Please restrict your posts to the actual car. Discussion over the various GPs belong in the respective race thread

[PlatinumZealot]

Anyone have any theories as to how Merc took such a massive step forward?

Better tyre management and therefore more options on strategy(?) Ever since the heater/cooler fins on the wheel rim showed up they haven't had the dramatic falloff of performance during the race.

IT's funny. I believe the car is now tuned for Hamilton's driving preferences. It is two races now, Russia and Japan, where Bottas tyres have gone to hell and Hamilton's own were crisp as a biscuit. Some photos floating around where Bottas is scrutinizing HAM's tyres after the race. There is also a video clip in the cool-down room when Bottas and Hamilton are talking about tyre temps in the race and Bottas said his reached 136 C and Ham said his didn't go higher than 132 C.

[wesley123]

Why would they do that considering both cars do not need to be exactly the same?

[PlatinumZealot]

Bottas' own setup probably too slow in qualifying perhaps. Bottas is also more aggressive on the steering.