Juzh wrote: ↑14 Mar 2021, 18:00
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑14 Mar 2021, 17:47
Commentators talking about the DRS being used/not used by Hamilton. The view down the pit straight showed the DRS open but the top speed was only about 185mph. With DRS open, the top speed is a lot more than 185mph on that straight. They'd already mentioned that Hamilton wasn't using 8th on the straight - something that had been obvious earlier too. No one looks very stressed in the garage. I still think Mercedes are playing games. No idea why they would unless they think they've got something very silly-fast and don't want to make it obvious.
The car has been a handful but they're not running top gear on straights. Something fishy is going on.
Sky and mark hughes are clueless, i don't know what screens they are watching. On his currently fastest lap 1.30.0 Hamilton was using 8th gear as usual and had the same top speed more or less as verstappen did on his fastest lap 1.28.9. Both around 308-310 kmh on main straight.
Interesting. In the lap he did after his final turn spin, his top speed on the start straight was about 300kmh according to the speed showing on the screen looking down the straight (not the onboard graphic).
As I said, it's all a bit odd.
Entirely possible that the rules around the floor edge/diffuser fences has hit Mercedes massively, but I'd be surprised if they were suddenly more than 1 second slower than Red Bull because of that rule change.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.