2019 Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team

[GPR-A]

[lio007]

What happened to Bottas' nose?

[De Jokke]

What happened to Mercedes today.
Both drivers making mistakes, certainly Lewis (twice!), it's the first time this has happened in a wet race I think.
Maybe him feeling under the weather had something to do with this (less concentration) as I'm not used to this kind of driving from him. Neither will he be.

I hope they can understand the update package better in a weeks time and extract more out of it. Let's regroup and up to the next one!

[Just_a_fan]

Lewis was under control right up until the team called him in for softs. He queried it but complied. As it happens, it was the wrong tyre for just one corner and he got bitten by it. Maybe a fully fit Lewis would have said "no, not having slicks yet", maybe he wouldn't. We'll never know.

This race is where the true benefit of the strong early season pays dividends. Bottas's DNF means Hamilton's lead is the same as it was yesterday. Max is still 61 points behind, Seb 82 points behind. Hamilton can afford for them to share a few wins between them, so long as he out scores Bottas and picks up 2 or 3 more wins (giving 9 or 10 for the season), he'll be champion.

Unless Mercedes's performance drops away for the rest of the season, you'd expect Hamilton to win 2 or 3 more races from here.

[astracrazy]

In races like this it will always be difficult to stay in the lead with so many safety cars and tyre calls.

The biggest winners are usually the ones with nothing to lose and the biggest losers with everything - and that was near enough the case today.

Merc were never going to go a whole season without a few --- weekends. Ferrari have had there fair share.

Lewis normally steps it up into another gear after the break and Merc will understand there new package more. Id bank on Lewis dominating just as much for the rest of the season.

[zibby43]

I didn’t get to see the race in full, but I saw references to Merc’s dry pace being abysmal. What was going on there?

[erudite450]

In races like this it will always be difficult to stay in the lead with so many safety cars and tyre calls.

I couldn't agree more. This wasn't a straightforward wet race. Stroll could have won the race if there was a long SC period when he was in the lead. Some of the drivers who were immaculate ended up behind drivers who made mistakes. It was a bit of lottery out there. Hamilton was very quick on the full wets, more than a second per lap quicker than the others for the 2 laps on the full wets. It's only a god that can drive on slicks on a wet track.

Ironically, what probably cost him the race was his decision to pit immediately after the crash. He'd have been better off, doing the full lap considering that they were already under safety car conditions.

[erudite450]

I didn’t get to see the race in full, but I saw references to Merc’s dry pace being abysmal. What was going on there?

It's difficult to say because they were in traffic but, yeah, Hamilton in particular had awful pace in the dry. Bottas seemed to have decent pace but couldn't get past Stroll. It was a race from hell for Mercedes.

[zibby43]

I didn’t get to see the race in full, but I saw references to Merc’s dry pace being abysmal. What was going on there?

It's difficult to say because they were in traffic but, yeah, Hamilton in particular had awful pace in the dry. Bottas seemed to have decent pace but couldn't get past Stroll. It was a race from hell for Mercedes.

Thank you for the info., erudite. Appreciate that bud.

Was helping a friend move today. I had the race recorded, but of course, social media notifications went wild and spoiled everything.

So many blunders I’m hearing about now.

I don’t know if they never fully understood how to set up the car with the new upgrades, but Merc never looked in the game from a pace or focus perspective.

If they don’t bounce back resoundingly in Hungary, Verstappen could make up some more ground.

[Pyrone89]

"The only thing we have to do to win this race is to overtake Verstappen."


Something about jinxing, commentators curse etc etc.

Remember, this is the exact race Netflix chose to film the Mercedes episode. Cant wait for season 2.

[erudite450]

I didn’t get to see the race in full, but I saw references to Merc’s dry pace being abysmal. What was going on there?

It's difficult to say because they were in traffic but, yeah, Hamilton in particular had awful pace in the dry. Bottas seemed to have decent pace but couldn't get past Stroll. It was a race from hell for Mercedes.

Thank you for the info., erudite. Appreciate that bud.

Was helping a friend move today. I had the race recorded, but of course, social media notifications went wild and spoiled everything.

So many blunders I’m hearing about now.

I don’t know if they never fully understood how to set up the car with the new upgrades, but Merc never looked in the game from a pace or focus perspective.

If they don’t bounce back resoundingly in Hungary, Verstappen could make up some more ground.

You are welcome bud. It was a great chaotic race (from a neutral perspective) but if I didn't watch it live, I wouldn't watch the replay. I can't stomach the disappointment Like I wrote in an earlier post, it wasn't a straightforward wet race. Hamilton was a class apart on the first 3 laps on the full wets and he had very good pace afterwards on the inters. The changeable condition threw a spanner into the works for him and the team.

It might be a wet race at the Hungaroring, hopefully it's a better one.

[Aesop]

"The only thing we have to do to win this race is to overtake Verstappen."


Something about jinxing, commentators curse etc etc.

I think they said: Our best chance to win is to overtake Verstappen at the restart.

[Bill]

Yesterday after Ferrari debacle Toto said they had an illness in there.i think he should have kept his mouth shut cause Mercedes embarrassed themselves today

[matt_b]

Looking through the lap times Mercedes had massive pace on the wets, it closed up a bit when they switched to inters but they were the fastest still. The moment the slicks went on they were behind Ferrari and Red Bull and struggled to overtake a Torro Rosso and Force India. I think they will be hoping for stable rain in Hungary if it is forecast for a wet weekend.

[Sieper]

Don’t agree with that assesment. Verstappen closed the gap to Bottas several times (beginning of race, on the inters) but overtaking (you have to go into the wet) was impossible at that point (he did try once). But Mercedes certainly did not enjoy somekind of big performance differentiator in the wet.

The whole right hand side of the start grid failed to get away. The racing line already had several passes behind the safety car before we started. Verstappen then had to fight passed the illegal start aid assisted Kimi, costing him pace on the fullwets.

Imho merc in the hands of Hamilton and RBR in the hands of Verstappen seemed evenly matched in pace.