2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[El Scorchio]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/russe ... r/6275591/

Asked directly ahead of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix about the rumour, Russell made clear that his relationship with Hamilton remained unchanged, and that nothing should be read into them not speaking specifically about the Sakhir race.

“I think the question towards me was did you speak to Lewis after Bahrain, and no, we didn’t speak, as we wouldn’t speak after any other race,” Russell said.

“We are racing against each other. If we see each other in the paddock, we would speak. We’ve seen each other this year, a little fist bump along the way, and that’s the same as it’s been since 2019 and last year before the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“My relationship towards Lewis is the same as it is with a lot of the drivers up and down the paddock, which is completely fine.

“So there’s no hard feelings and no issues between myself and Lewis.”

So the previous fake news was just that.

Just someone trying to create some drama and clicks out of nothing. Why would they go to extra effort to speak together unless they specifically bumped into each other? They are on different teams.

Good on George for putting that ****stirring to bed.

[GalacticHitchHiker]

It is quite silly to imagine they would need to talk about the Sakhir GP. Did either RP driver have a conversation with Hulkenberg last season?

[zibby43]

Ted Kravitz reported today, and I'm paraphrasing, that Mercedes informed him that they believe they've made some substantial improvements/gains on the PU over the past 3 weeks.

I'm guessing this has to do with further optimizing both the cooling and derating issues the team was encountering in both preseason testing and the first race in Bahrain.

[dans79]

Ted Kravitz reported today, and I'm paraphrasing, that Mercedes informed him that they believe they've made some substantial improvements/gains on the PU over the past 3 weeks.

I'm guessing this has to do with further optimizing both the cooling and derating issues the team was encountering in both preseason testing and the first race in Bahrain.

I'd hope so! Bahrain was so close to pre-season testing they were never going to get anything in place for that, but 5 weeks later I'd expect them to have come up with a fix and had it thoroughly tested.

[zibby43]

Ted Kravitz reported today, and I'm paraphrasing, that Mercedes informed him that they believe they've made some substantial improvements/gains on the PU over the past 3 weeks.

I'm guessing this has to do with further optimizing both the cooling and derating issues the team was encountering in both preseason testing and the first race in Bahrain.

I'd hope so! Bahrain was so close to pre-season testing they were never going to get anything in place for that, but 5 weeks later I'd expect them to have come up with a fix and had it thoroughly tested.

Agreed. I think this progress confirms what we were discussing in terms of the issues being something they were already aware of on the dyno (as you mentioned). They just needed some extra real-world data to prove things out/confirm, plus the additional time to then extrapolate further refinements from that data.

[mkay]

Ted Kravitz reported today, and I'm paraphrasing, that Mercedes informed him that they believe they've made some substantial improvements/gains on the PU over the past 3 weeks.

I'm guessing this has to do with further optimizing both the cooling and derating issues the team was encountering in both preseason testing and the first race in Bahrain.

I'd hope so! Bahrain was so close to pre-season testing they were never going to get anything in place for that, but 5 weeks later I'd expect them to have come up with a fix and had it thoroughly tested.

Agreed. I think this progress confirms what we were discussing in terms of the issues being something they were already aware of on the dyno (as you mentioned). They just needed some extra real-world data to prove things out/confirm, plus the additional time to then extrapolate further refinements from that data.

Let’s wait (at least) until we see the cars on track?

If the above is from Ted’s paddock walk, he just said Merc focused mostly on the PU in between the 2 races and think they’ve made progress, though they didn’t specify anything further (Where? How much?).

So yeah... we should probably wait until we get representative running. Besides with the temps forecast this weekend, I don’t think anyone is going to have cooling issues.

[zibby43]

I'd hope so! Bahrain was so close to pre-season testing they were never going to get anything in place for that, but 5 weeks later I'd expect them to have come up with a fix and had it thoroughly tested.

Agreed. I think this progress confirms what we were discussing in terms of the issues being something they were already aware of on the dyno (as you mentioned). They just needed some extra real-world data to prove things out/confirm, plus the additional time to then extrapolate further refinements from that data.

Let’s wait (at least) until we see the cars on track?

If the above is from Ted’s paddock walk, he just said Merc focused mostly on the PU in between the 2 races and think they’ve made progress, though they didn’t specify anything further (Where? How much?).

So yeah... we should probably wait until we get representative running. Besides with the temps forecast this weekend, I don’t think anyone is going to have cooling issues.

I never attempted to quantify the gains ("how much"), and the whole point in reporting the information is so that we can "watch this space" with respect to PU performance this weekend. And I paraphrased the same: They reported making progress (or gains, a synonym for the word progress).

In terms of the "where", since the team confirmed the derating issue multiple times, I don't think it's a huge leap to assume that this was one of primary areas of focus. Especially since they've also commented that they noticed the issue in testing and improved it for the first race. And also because derating at the end of a straight costs precious time.

[dans79]

A nice clip from the team (was shown during the broadcast).

[DarthPlagueisTheVise]

Lewis Hamilton's Pole Lap (His first Q3 Run)

[RedNEO]

You gotta hand it to Lewis. His team mate is nowhere and he still managed to beat both Bulls. That’s more driver than car.

[F1Krof]

Anyone knows what happened to Bottas today?

[DarthPlagueisTheVise]

Anyone knows what happened to Bottas today?

All I know is that he lost majority of his deficit to lewis in sector 1

[214270]

Did the drivers converge on a setup? They had a different wing & pylon treatment in the practice sessions, no?

[Mchamilton]

Lewis Hamilton's Pole Lap (His first Q3 Run)

Can tell that was a q3 'banker' with the amount of space he gave on turn 9 exit. Time on the table bit the second lap didn't come together.

[RZS10]

Anyone knows what happened to Bottas today?

He claimed he had some unexpected oversteer in the first sector which he didn't have previously and thinks that the car might have had some damage.
Toto Wolff said that he simply did not get his tyres into the operating window, he did his Q1 time, which was better than his Q3 run, on the second hotlap with a cooldown lap inbetween and then in order to have two shots didn't go for two warmup laps in Q3.