A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
I've watched Toto over the last 6 years...I do not think anyone should be worried.
HAM more or less confirmed Mercedes is struggling with the rear end of the car. Either they haven't gotten on top of the 2021 Pirellis, or low rake cars are suffering a lot more from the floor changes.
Do people have any idea where Mercedes used its tokens?
“[The track was] very gusty, as I found out into Turn 13, so the rear doesn’t feel particularly great with this new regulation change,” he added. “But we’re trying to find the sweet spot.”
This is probably the most important part of that article in my opinion.
“It’s day two of testing, so we’re just focused on doing our job,” said Hamilton. “So nowhere near [being worried] at the moment, just trying to understand the car. There’s no point in getting worried just yet, everyone’s focusing on their programmes and that’s what we’re doing.”
In such cases I always listen to the words they do say, and not to the denials.
But the car looks good, the floor looks inventive and Merc already had a head start baseline and still has the biggest baddest team so there likely isn’t much trouble. Again, we will see soon enough. I have seen Lewis slipping and sliding around often enough in FPs to not think anything too troublesome is going on.
I've watched Toto over the last 6 years...I do not think anyone should be worried.
HAM more or less confirmed Mercedes is struggling with the rear end of the car. Either they haven't gotten on top of the 2021 Pirellis, or low rake cars are suffering a lot more from the floor changes.
Do people have any idea where Mercedes used its tokens?
I said previously it was likely the regulations would effect lower rake cars more, will only really know in two weeks time. But it certainly looks less planted than in previous years. As for the tokens, don’t forget that DAS was outlawed for this year, they may have had to spend tokens removing that.
I'm wondering whether we're going to see quite a radical update to the W12 tomorrow, but more likely at the filming day or first race. I can't help but think back to launch day when James Allison was asked where the tokens had been spent, and his response went along the lines of "we're not going to reveal that just yet, but it'll become clear in good time", all the while beaming from ear to ear.
Yeah the floor is different, but not crazy different, and so far it's not obvious where they've spent the tokens. They stopped developing last year's car earlier than anyone else, and with only 2021 rules to focus on I'd be surprised if the current incarnation of the car is the best they could come up.
I therefore suspect that what they've been testing so far is an interim spec and that there's an update that'll bring some significant visual changes. It might also be why they've opted to have their filming day after the tests rather than before.
I'm wondering whether we're going to see quite a radical update to the W12 tomorrow, but more likely at the filming day or first race. I can't help but think back to launch day when James Allison was asked where the tokens had been spent, and his response went along the lines of "we're not going to reveal that just yet, but it'll become clear in good time", all the while beaming from ear to ear.
Yeah the floor is different, but not crazy different, and so far it's not obvious where they've spent the tokens. They stopped developing last year's car earlier than anyone else, and with only 2021 rules to focus on I'd be surprised if the current incarnation of the car is the best they could come up.
I therefore suspect that what they've been testing so far is an interim spec and that there's an update that'll bring some significant visual changes. It might also be why they've opted to have their filming day after the tests rather than before.
I agree with the rationale but this sort of gamesmanship (hiding upgrades for a couple of days/weeks) is extremely risky, given limited testing/budget cap.
I agree with the rationale but this sort of gamesmanship (hiding upgrades for a couple of days/weeks) is extremely risky, given limited testing/budget cap.
It depends on what the upgrade is. Somethings can just be slapped on the car as they will just work, others require lots of track time to gather data for validation and correlation.
I'm wondering whether we're going to see quite a radical update to the W12 tomorrow, but more likely at the filming day or first race. I can't help but think back to launch day when James Allison was asked where the tokens had been spent, and his response went along the lines of "we're not going to reveal that just yet, but it'll become clear in good time", all the while beaming from ear to ear.
Yeah the floor is different, but not crazy different, and so far it's not obvious where they've spent the tokens. They stopped developing last year's car earlier than anyone else, and with only 2021 rules to focus on I'd be surprised if the current incarnation of the car is the best they could come up.
I therefore suspect that what they've been testing so far is an interim spec and that there's an update that'll bring some significant visual changes. It might also be why they've opted to have their filming day after the tests rather than before.
That would have made sense in any other season, but not in 2021. Assuming Mercedes is trying to hide something from RedBull (who obviously are going to be their main competitors), RedBull wouldn't even be allowed to copy it as that would require tokens and they used theirs already.
Mercedes brought an 80% different car to the second week of testing 2 years ago, they said the first week was the first iteration from the aero team and the one they brought a week later was so they could run it in the wind tunnel longer before manufacture and shipment. It is possible as they were saying the same things that pre season testing.....
I find it real hard to believe that a lower rake setup would be affected more by this year's changes than a high rake one.
It is inherently harder to seal a higher rake floor that is a lower rake one.
I believed so too, but in an interview between ted kravitz and christian horner yesterday, ted was pretty keen to believe that assuming mercs and redbulls are sealing the floor to a similar degree, mercs are always losing out on account of running a lower rake
Its in the 2nd interview, just after Valterri bottas
I believed so too, but in an interview between ted kravitz and christian horner yesterday, ted was pretty keen to believe that assuming mercs and redbulls are sealing the floor to a similar degree, mercs are always losing out on account of running a lower rake
Its in the 2nd interview, just after Valterri bottas
A few things you need to keep in mind when you listen to anything Ted says.
1) He is a sky reporter first and foremost. Thus just like the rest of his peers, he is predisposed to exaggeration and hype to engage the average fan.
2) Despite being positioned as the "technical" member of the Sky team, Ted has not technical background to speak of. He has been a reporter/presenter his entire career.
Setting all the above aside for a moment, It needs to be pointed out that Ted is making his comment under the guise of everything else being equal. However (as he surely knows) over the last several year everything else hasn't been equal.
I don't have the numbers for this years cars, and I couldn't even find a reliable resource for last years cars either so take the following with a grain of salt. For the last several years, Mercedes has run a longer car with a longer wheelbase than its competitors. This means it has a larger floor area, and thus doesn't have to work the floor as hard as its competitors to generate a given amount of downforce.
