2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[Marty_Y]

Anyone knows what happened to Bottas today?

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/bott ... 3/6313010/

[dans79]

Hopefully this is the teams one and only Boogie weekend this season. In spite of it they're still leading both championships.

[zibby43]

Hopefully this is the teams one and only Boogie weekend this season. In spite of it they're still leading both championships.

Toto just told Sky he believes Merc are quicker in race trim now.

[dans79]

Hopefully this is the teams one and only Boogie weekend this season. In spite of it they're still leading both championships.

Toto just told Sky he believes Merc are quicker in race trim now.

Lewis definitely looked faster on warn inters even with damage. I'm unsure how much faster he was on the mediums, as max was in heavy traffic right after the pit stop, and then Lewis had his off.

Honestly, I think if Lewis hadn't had the off they would be tied on points as I don't think Lewis would have scored fastest lap because of the drs benefit he got from Lando.

[mkay]

Hopefully this is the teams one and only Boogie weekend this season. In spite of it they're still leading both championships.

Toto just told Sky he believes Merc are quicker in race trim now.

Lewis definitely looked faster on warn inters even with damage.

It was very impressive. Today's race also highlighted what may be one of Merc's main weakness - tyre warm-up.

It took HAM about 5 laps to get his inters up to temperature by which time VER was already 6 seconds up the road. Same thing after the pitstop where HAM came out about 3s behind VER but lost another 2 seconds during the rest of the outlap. VER was a lot more aggressive on his outlap and I think it's a function of how both chassis work the tyres.

It also contributed to BOT's miserable qualifying yesterday.

Post-race, Toto said that the BOT/RUS incident could impact Merc's development as crashes/repairs count against the cost cap. I'm very surprised teams don't have an allowance for crashes and accidents.

[erudite450]

The team needs to sort out these silly pitstop issues. The championship is too close to be constantly messing up pitstops.

[dans79]

The team needs to sort out these silly pitstop issues. The championship is too close to be constantly messing up pitstops.

I didn't personally see it, but Ted mentioned Lewis had to be held because someone else was coming in or going out of the pits.

[zibby43]

Been a long time since Lewis had a poor race start.

How do we think the team is going to do in Portimao? RBR was close last year on merit, but I think we can throw out comparisons to last year with how much the cars’ handling profiles have changed for ‘21.

[dans79]

Been a long time since Lewis had a poor race start.

Lewis didn't have a poor start in fact it was decent. Max however had an amazing start in second gear and then benefited from a slight dry patch.

[erudite450]

Been a long time since Lewis had a poor race start.

Lewis didn't have a poor start in fact it was decent. Max however had an amazing start in second gear and then benefited from a slight dry patch.

Absolutely correct! Actually it felt to the naked eye as though Hamilton had the better reaction time of all the front runners.

[erudite450]

Been a long time since Lewis had a poor race start.

How do we think the team is going to do in Portimao? RBR was close last year on merit, but I think we can throw out comparisons to last year with how much the cars’ handling profiles have changed for ‘21.

I expect it to be close in qualy but for Mercedes - at least in Hamilton's hands - to be the quickest race car.

[dans79]

It was very impressive. Today's race also highlighted what may be one of Merc's main weakness - tyre warm-up.

I'm not sure if it's a weakness, as much as a different philosophy on how the tires should be warmed up.

It was telling, that even with dirty air and a damaged front wing, Lewis was right on Max even though the tires were heavily worn.

Warming the tires up slowly might have a positive impact on their longevity.

[Shrieker]

Been a long time since Lewis had a poor race start.

Lewis didn't have a poor start in fact it was decent. Max however had an amazing start in second gear and then benefited from a slight dry patch.

Hamilton didn't cover the inside line and allowed Max in there. It was the root of all of his problems today. Overall a disappointing drive from him up until the red flag, but a decent recovery after catching a lucky break nevertheless.

[PhillipM]

It was very impressive. Today's race also highlighted what may be one of Merc's main weakness

....Bottas

[Shrieker]

What went wrong in Hamilton's stop ? I know the right front didn't come out quick enough, and they had a 4 sec pit stop, and they ended up 1.5 seconds behind Max.