This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
I asked today that question and the spanish reporter seemed to confirm the unit was done. But you are right, not officially known yet. But even If broken, this course and result traject they are on is not bad imho. Just merc made a giant step (also aided by the rule changes it seems to me). Hopefully Max can battle on merit for P3 again.
Unfortunately we don't know their silver bullet.
But back in the "RB-era" the FIA did everything to ban RB's innovations ( flexi FW's, hot/cold blown diffusors,...).
Last edited by lio007 on 12 May 2019, 21:45, edited 1 time in total.
Yeah, but now in this era the legislation seems to move in favor of the quickest team. No more tire blistering for them and no more Floor sealing FW for the high rake boys.
Yeah, but now in this era the legislation seems to move in favor of the quickest team. No more tire blistering for them and no more Floor sealing FW for the high rake boys.
Maybe Liberty should just sell to Vince McMahon and get it over with.
Baku showed RBR was on Ferrari pace and Barcelona has confirmed. Three races ago it would have been unbelievable to say such a thing. Great progress by RBR. Merc are too far ahead, but at least fight for second best is on.
based on qualy S1 mercs is not that superior by their PU but suddenly to be 8 tenths faster than Ferrari , 5 tenths over RBR in S3 is just bizarre .. this telling me mercs discovered something advantageously in the chassis similar to the double diffuser that RBR did previously...
can RBR and Ferrari discover the trick ? they will catch up if they do however hopefully it won't be too late.
Should have been Max's third podium but nice to see him back 3rd in the drivers championship.
I fully expected Max to beat the Ferraris and I'm glad we pulled through despite the safety car fiasco. I was about to be livid if another Renault associated entity impeded on another podium.
Two more PU spec are expected and these two are actually intended as qualifying performance upgrades as opposed to the recent reliability and race pace modifications.
I asked today that question and the spanish reporter seemed to confirm the unit was done. But you are right, not officially known yet. But even If broken, this course and result traject they are on is not bad imho. Just merc made a giant step (also aided by the rule changes it seems to me). Hopefully Max can battle on merit for P3 again.
Rubbish. An oil leak doesn't take out an entire PU. I call fake news.
That really depends on where the oil is leaking from, why it is leaking. But no need to speculate, we will know in a few days tops, Honda keeps everyone updated.
All the more reason to look after the spec 2. Ferrari and Renault have been salvaging PU elements that have failures, give it time and that engine might make it back into a friday pool. It will never be used in a race again anyway so no need to worry. And no sense in taking penalties to fix spec 1 either when you can just add another spec 2.x anyway.
Should have been Max's third podium but nice to see him back 3rd in the drivers championship.
They can fight with Ferrari's and this is just 5th race of season. We know how good they are inseason development. Hope they will fight with mercs in second half of season.
Should have been Max's third podium but nice to see him back 3rd in the drivers championship.
They can fight with Ferrari's and this is just 5th race of season. We know how good they are inseason development. Hope they will fight with mercs in second half of season.
I honestly expect them to be able to finish second in the WCC easily the way the season is going. Gasly is only going to get more comfortable hopefully, they could be finishing 3&4 and picking up additional positions if Ham/Bot come across issues.
Mercedes is flawless, they are under no real pressure, so they can perform at their optimum. They know they have the pace, the reliability, the talent, the budget, to win. Closing that 3 tenth gap down without some special trick or two is really hard to do. I fear that simply raising engine power wouldn't be enough, that it would only be half of the puzzle. The other half has to come from getting more from the chassis and tires. The data is showing that it's not the entry phase of the slow corners, it's getting on the power where Mercedes wins. It's not about mid and high speed corners, they're pretty even there, it's low speed. If the high speed balance is compromising low speed balance, that is a tricky thing to fix to get something that works well enough in all circumstances.
Perhaps that's what Mercedes has done, biased the setup for low speed handling at the expense of mid - high speed cornering, maybe that's why the car looks like a handful in mid speed corners. Mid speed corners are where Red Bull and Ferrari are closest, sector's 1 and 2. Meaning aero performance is not that big of a difference. Low speed one would think it's more setup and tire related than out and out aero, although I'm sure that plays a part.
Mercedes is flawless, they are under no real pressure, so they can perform at their optimum. They know they have the pace, the reliability, the talent, the budget, to win. Closing that 3 tenth gap down without some special trick or two is really hard to do. I fear that simply raising engine power wouldn't be enough, that it would only be half of the puzzle. The other half has to come from getting more from the chassis and tires. The data is showing that it's not the entry phase of the slow corners, it's getting on the power where Mercedes wins. It's not about mid and high speed corners, they're pretty even there, it's low speed. If the high speed balance is compromising low speed balance, that is a tricky thing to fix to get something that works well enough in all circumstances.
Perhaps that's what Mercedes has done, biased the setup for low speed handling at the expense of mid - high speed cornering, maybe that's why the car looks like a handful in mid speed corners. Mid speed corners are where Red Bull and Ferrari are closest, sector's 1 and 2. Meaning aero performance is not that big of a difference. Low speed one would think it's more setup and tire related than out and out aero, although I'm sure that plays a part.
There's a lot of buzz around that Merc have a very slight, legal way of allowing some sort of rear wheel steering. The actual effect is small but apparently with accurate setup changes it can be effective, possibly how they are managing incredible times in the tight stuff?
If this is true, RBR's chassis may well be fantastic but without that sort of tech/setup Merc may have, it won't be their strength anymore.
