2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[dans79]

Great recovery from Lewis, I think that's the first time I've seen a F1 driver need to use reverse gear and still finish second lol.

Apart from the cost of rebuilding Bottas's car I'm guessing he will need a new gearbox and possibly a new PU which will lead to a grid penalty, so that crash could end up being disastrous for Mercedes constructors championship chances.

Edit just seen photos in the W12 thread, maybe the rear end wasn't damaged as badly as I thought so maybe the gearbox and PU are ok.

If you don’t finish the race, you can fit a new GB without a penalty.

I think this is no longer the case. I believe you are now allowed 3 and that's it without a penalty.

the rule is still there.
https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... -03-19.pdf

23.5 a)

Each driver may use no more than one gearbox for six consecutive Events in which his
Competitor competes. Should a driver use a replacement gearbox he will drop five places
on the starting grid at that Event and an additional five places each time a further gearbox
is used.

Any replacement gearbox will only be required to complete the remainder of the Event in
question.

Unless the driver fails to finish the race (or is unable to start the race for reasons other
than a penalty imposed by the stewards) the gearbox fitted to the car at the end of the
Event must remain in it for the remainder of the six race sequence.
Any driver who failed to finish the race at the first, second, third, fourth or fifth of the six
Events for reasons which the Technical Delegate accepts as being beyond the control of
the Competitor or driver, may start the following Event with a different gearbox without
a penalty being incurred.

[Jolle]

Great recovery from Lewis, I think that's the first time I've seen a F1 driver need to use reverse gear and still finish second lol.

Apart from the cost of rebuilding Bottas's car I'm guessing he will need a new gearbox and possibly a new PU which will lead to a grid penalty, so that crash could end up being disastrous for Mercedes constructors championship chances.

Edit just seen photos in the W12 thread, maybe the rear end wasn't damaged as badly as I thought so maybe the gearbox and PU are ok.

If you don’t finish the race, you can fit a new GB without a penalty.

I think this is no longer the case. I believe you are now allowed 3 and that's it without a penalty.

Gasly and Masapin took a new GB without penalty because they didn't finish the first race.

[holeindalip]

Entitled is the word that comes to mind for me. As i've said a few times, he's had several major screw ups that are all on him. Not to mention his one real stand out moment, was a good qualifying in a dominant car on what's easily the simplest track layout in the last 2+ decades.

I mentioned yesterday he could easily lose the Mercedes seat to someone like Lando, if he can't get himself under control.

Last year, Lando had some flippant comments about what Hamilton had accomplished being not impressive, but expected, given his equipment. Probably the most disrespectful comments I’ve seen from any young driver. He later apologized.

Lando has had his own mistakes on-track as well.

I definitely agree that how George conducted himself in the immediate aftermath of yesterday’s incident was not his best moment, but he’s fast, he’s hungry/hard-working and at least willing to make a move on track.

I’m willing to cut all the young guys some slack. And I appreciate that George had a mea culpa today.

https://twitter.com/georgerussell63/sta ... 41223?s=21

On a related note, I have supported Bottas for a long time. I think he was deserving of that support, too. But since the end of last season, he has been performing mediocre to below mediocre, and his penchant for letting mistakes snowball on weekends could easily cost Merc the WCC this year.

At the moment the WCC is quite safe-ish with RedBull and Perez dropping the ball now twice (last race the car, this race Perez).

Pretty sure the car let Perez down again as he had steering issues, as he said the car was turning by itself (hydraulic issue). They replaced his steering wheel on one of his pit stops so I would lay the whole blame on Perez for the race performance as he was quite fast in qualy...

[dans79]

Last year, Lando had some flippant comments about what Hamilton had accomplished being not impressive, but expected, given his equipment. Probably the most disrespectful comments I’ve seen from any young driver. He later apologized.

Lando has had his own mistakes on-track as well.

The thing is imo, teams will tolerate all kinds of obnoxious behavior and driver generated drama, as long as the driver delivers when he needs to. For example reference many of Alonso's comments over the years.

Right now Lando is delivering, for example this from the Mclaren tema thread.

I wonder what performance bonuses are in his current contract

Lando has won the midfield battle 4 out of the last 5 races

He has finished 4th, (10th), 5th, 4th & 3rd

With the exception of Sakhir he has only been beaten by Mercs & Redbulls

If that trend continues, and Russell continues to make mistakes that he should not, such as the following i could easily see him losing the seat.

• France 2019
• Austria 2020
• Imola 2020
• Imola 2021

[Phil]

While we are on topic, Hamilton is not making it easy for Mercedey
to consider not offering him an extension for 2022 if he is the one draging the results and potentially another chanpionship in a season that might be their closest yet.

Likewise, the prospect of Max cutting his contract short at RedBull to leave for Mercedes is also looking rather unlikely for 2022 given the car they have built.

[Jolle]

While we are on topic, Hamilton is not making it easy for Mercedey
to consider not offering him an extension for 2022 if he is the one draging the results and potentially another chanpionship in a season that might be their closest yet.

Likewise, the prospect of Max cutting his contract short at RedBull to leave for Mercedes is also looking rather unlikely for 2022 given the car they have built.

Even if Hamilton binned the car twice and had zero points, there is no way Mercedes wouldn't offer him a shitload for an extension. Not only proven quality, also by far the best know car racer at this moment. Wolff/Mercedes are not going to make the same mistake as Ferrari in 2006. Expect Hamilton in that seat for a couple of more years and in Mercedes adds for the next few decades.

[MKlaus]

Last year, Lando had some flippant comments about what Hamilton had accomplished being not impressive, but expected, given his equipment. Probably the most disrespectful comments I’ve seen from any young driver. He later apologized.

Lando has had his own mistakes on-track as well.

The thing is imo, teams will tolerate all kinds of obnoxious behavior and driver generated drama, as long as the driver delivers when he needs to. For example reference many of Alonso's comments over the years.

Right now Lando is delivering, for example this from the Mclaren tema thread.

I wonder what performance bonuses are in his current contract

Lando has won the midfield battle 4 out of the last 5 races

He has finished 4th, (10th), 5th, 4th & 3rd

With the exception of Sakhir he has only been beaten by Mercs & Redbulls

If that trend continues, and Russell continues to make mistakes that he should not, such as the following i could easily see him losing the seat.

• France 2019
• Austria 2020
• Imola 2020
• Imola 2021

anyone with basic understanding of f1 would know, it's hardly a comparison between drivers in two different category of cars. driving a backmarker requires a bit of overdriving to achieve some sort of respectable position. lando got into a midfield car and that gives opportunities to take advantage when there are missed opportunities from front runners. this year, the car clearly seems to be 3rd best. which obviously gives more opportunities to shine.

imagine if mclaren would have looked at lewis from the same lense at the end of 2011. he overdrove mclaren to fight with red bull and kept making mistakes.
some people here are daydreaming that mclaren would release lando for 2022, which is not going to happen as mclaren would exercise their option on him.

[zibby43]

Last year, Lando had some flippant comments about what Hamilton had accomplished being not impressive, but expected, given his equipment. Probably the most disrespectful comments I’ve seen from any young driver. He later apologized.

Lando has had his own mistakes on-track as well.

The thing is imo, teams will tolerate all kinds of obnoxious behavior and driver generated drama, as long as the driver delivers when he needs to. For example reference many of Alonso's comments over the years.

Right now Lando is delivering, for example this from the Mclaren tema thread.

I wonder what performance bonuses are in his current contract

Lando has won the midfield battle 4 out of the last 5 races

He has finished 4th, (10th), 5th, 4th & 3rd

With the exception of Sakhir he has only been beaten by Mercs & Redbulls

If that trend continues, and Russell continues to make mistakes that he should not, such as the following i could easily see him losing the seat.

• France 2019
• Austria 2020
• Imola 2020
• Imola 2021

All good points!

I just think Russell built up a lot of equity with that Sakhir performance. It’s not easy to get situated to a new car that quickly, particularly for qualifying, as recent super-sub outings have shown.

He had some great overtakes in Sakhir, and it’s pretty amazing he was mixing it up with Bottas in Imola as well.

But this season has 21 races to go, and plenty of opportunities to prove himself.

[Jolle]

Last year, Lando had some flippant comments about what Hamilton had accomplished being not impressive, but expected, given his equipment. Probably the most disrespectful comments I’ve seen from any young driver. He later apologized.

Lando has had his own mistakes on-track as well.

The thing is imo, teams will tolerate all kinds of obnoxious behavior and driver generated drama, as long as the driver delivers when he needs to. For example reference many of Alonso's comments over the years.

Right now Lando is delivering, for example this from the Mclaren tema thread.

I wonder what performance bonuses are in his current contract

Lando has won the midfield battle 4 out of the last 5 races

He has finished 4th, (10th), 5th, 4th & 3rd

With the exception of Sakhir he has only been beaten by Mercs & Redbulls

If that trend continues, and Russell continues to make mistakes that he should not, such as the following i could easily see him losing the seat.

• France 2019
• Austria 2020
• Imola 2020
• Imola 2021

All good points!

I just think Russell built up a lot of equity with that Sakhir performance. It’s not easy to get situated to a new car that quickly, particularly for qualifying, as recent super-sub outings have shown.

He had some great overtakes in Sakhir, and it’s pretty amazing he was mixing it up with Bottas in Imola as well.

But this season has 21 races to go, and plenty of opportunities to prove himself.

Russell’s only real competition is Bottas (who was driving backwards). Norris won’t be released by McLaren, Verstappen is tied to RB and a big problem with the coming driver cap, Leclerc is also locked in.

[Polarit]

Hamilton is showing Bottas up this year but that's because the car isn't as good or stable. Paddy Lowe said I think it was 2005 or 06 when they had Hamilton testing the same car Montoya drove that Pablo said it was undrivable yet Lewis said it was fine and put in much better laps.

The start of this year is a result of Hamilton's entire career. He's one of the best ever in the sport..... Bottas is solid. He just isn't Lewis and that's fine.

I think Russel was over-driving trying to make a point. He'll learn from it and his apology speaks volumes but all young drivers make mistakes and any future world champion needs that needle. I think Toto will secretly happy.

[zibby43]

Russell’s only real competition is Bottas (who was driving backwards). Norris won’t be released by McLaren, Verstappen is tied to RB and a big problem with the coming driver cap, Leclerc is also locked in.

Driver salaries are currently excluded from the cap, per my understanding.

Somewhat related note - Hamilton weighs in on Russell's apology:

[214270]

Question for anybody in the know.

If HAM signs a three year contract, let’s say for arguments sake this Fri; surely it would be excluded from any future drivers cost cap, right? ie. It would not legally be possible to grandfather in a previous contract into a new cost structure, it needs to be honoured or mutually cancelled ??

[zibby43]

Mercedes better on tire degradation; warm-up issues costing pace in qualifying and on Inters early in stints.

A role reversal from previous Mercs that enjoyed cool temperatures.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... l/6361748/

[mkay]

Mercedes better on tire degradation; warm-up issues costing pace in qualifying and on Inters early in stints.

A role reversal from previous Mercs that enjoyed cool temperatures.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merc ... l/6361748/

To be fair, I have a feeling the W11 probably had the same "issue" but it was masked by DAS. It's apparent now that DAS has been outlawed.

Tyre warmup is one thing, but Merc's priority should be on improving rear aerodynamic performance and improving 1-lap PU performance. Mercedes gave up a lot of lap time through fast corners in both Imola and Bahrain and the clipping is bound to have cost Merc probably a tenth or so at Imola, and more in Bahrain.

On the PU side, still unclear to me how the PU can be so good over deploying/harvesting over a race distance, but be clipping like hell over 1-lap. Fortunately, it may suggest there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the PU, but they need to get to the bottom of this given how tight qualifying has been thus far. A few tenths here and there will go a long way.

[DarthPlagueisTheVise]

Lewis is testing the 18 inch wheels. Looks super dope imo.