2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[LM10]

Bottas has never been one of those drivers a top team like Mercedes would deserve, but he was good enough to collect some valuable points in that dominant car.
This year, however, things are a bit different. The team needs both drivers to be on top of things. Hamilton will not disappear into the sunset like he's done in recent years securing both WDC and WCC easily. Mercedes will be under such pressure like they've not been since 2014. Maybe even more after this weekend because I can imagine they were expecting to get pole and the win, but were somewhat surprised of the RedBull storming to pole without the mighty flexi rear wing.

[PhillipM]

Higher tyre pressures have always hurt Merc in the past, probably going to be more of this now pirelli are being cautious

[Hammerfist]

Is there anything in the pipeline for Merc in terms of upgrades? I hear nothing. If that is the case, Redbull will leave them for dead as they usually develop aggressively throughout the year.

[mclaren113]

It could be 2017 all over again
Vettel was leading Lewis by 12 points after 7 races

The difference is Red Bull team is better than Ferrari in race execution

So it'll be a tough task to beat them this year without making the car at least as fast as theirs

[adrianjordan]

Is there anything in the pipeline for Merc in terms of upgrades? I hear nothing. If that is the case, Redbull will leave them for dead as they usually develop aggressively throughout the year.

This is no normal season though. At some point each team has to switch focus to the new cars. I think Merc already has.

[zibby43]

Is there anything in the pipeline for Merc in terms of upgrades? I hear nothing. If that is the case, Redbull will leave them for dead as they usually develop aggressively throughout the year.

Upgrades rumored for Austria.

[pursue_one's]

Is there anything in the pipeline for Merc in terms of upgrades? I hear nothing. If that is the case, Redbull will leave them for dead as they usually develop aggressively throughout the year.

Upgrades rumored for Austria.

What’s the source of this?

[Just_a_fan]

It could be 2017 all over again
Vettel was leading Lewis by 12 points after 7 races

The difference is Red Bull team is better than Ferrari in race execution

So it'll be a tough task to beat them this year without making the car at least as fast as theirs

I don't see Lewis overtaking Max unless Mercedes actually do some work to their car to improve it. Red Bull are probably going to keep developing their car for a while yet and they see the title as available. I think Mercedes have just taken the decision to do as little as possible with their car and use the resources for the big rule change next year. I wonder if that was based on a belief that their car was good enough anyway, or maybe they think the rule change for this year meant the car was basically as good as they can get it and so there's nothing to gain from trying to develop it.

[mclaren113]

It could be 2017 all over again
Vettel was leading Lewis by 12 points after 7 races

The difference is Red Bull team is better than Ferrari in race execution

So it'll be a tough task to beat them this year without making the car at least as fast as theirs

I don't see Lewis overtaking Max unless Mercedes actually do some work to their car to improve it. Red Bull are probably going to keep developing their car for a while yet and they see the title as available. I think Mercedes have just taken the decision to do as little as possible with their car and use the resources for the big rule change next year. I wonder if that was based on a belief that their car was good enough anyway, or maybe they think the rule change for this year meant the car was basically as good as they can get it and so there's nothing to gain from trying to develop it.

They just need to find 2-3 tenths more than red bull

But from what I see they can't

Almost no upgrades till now, what are they waiting for?

[e30ernest]

It could be 2017 all over again
Vettel was leading Lewis by 12 points after 7 races

The difference is Red Bull team is better than Ferrari in race execution

So it'll be a tough task to beat them this year without making the car at least as fast as theirs

I don't see Lewis overtaking Max unless Mercedes actually do some work to their car to improve it. Red Bull are probably going to keep developing their car for a while yet and they see the title as available. I think Mercedes have just taken the decision to do as little as possible with their car and use the resources for the big rule change next year. I wonder if that was based on a belief that their car was good enough anyway, or maybe they think the rule change for this year meant the car was basically as good as they can get it and so there's nothing to gain from trying to develop it.

This was my view as well. But I was reminded earlier in this thread that they had stopped development early last year supposedly to focus on this year too. So what have they been doing for almost half of last year? They couldn't have been working on the 2022 challenger too since they couldn't start work on that until this year.

[aran.vtec]

It could be 2017 all over again
Vettel was leading Lewis by 12 points after 7 races

The difference is Red Bull team is better than Ferrari in race execution

So it'll be a tough task to beat them this year without making the car at least as fast as theirs

I don't see Lewis overtaking Max unless Mercedes actually do some work to their car to improve it. Red Bull are probably going to keep developing their car for a while yet and they see the title as available. I think Mercedes have just taken the decision to do as little as possible with their car and use the resources for the big rule change next year. I wonder if that was based on a belief that their car was good enough anyway, or maybe they think the rule change for this year meant the car was basically as good as they can get it and so there's nothing to gain from trying to develop it.

x2 redbull is also willing to sacrifice 2022 car for a championship this year more than others as next year is unknown, cant forget out of the top 3 big spenders Mercedes is hurt the most with cost cap.

[El Scorchio]

It could be 2017 all over again
Vettel was leading Lewis by 12 points after 7 races

The difference is Red Bull team is better than Ferrari in race execution

So it'll be a tough task to beat them this year without making the car at least as fast as theirs

I don't see Lewis overtaking Max unless Mercedes actually do some work to their car to improve it. Red Bull are probably going to keep developing their car for a while yet and they see the title as available. I think Mercedes have just taken the decision to do as little as possible with their car and use the resources for the big rule change next year. I wonder if that was based on a belief that their car was good enough anyway, or maybe they think the rule change for this year meant the car was basically as good as they can get it and so there's nothing to gain from trying to develop it.

I think a little pragmatism, possibly mixed with a little arrogance, dare I say it.
You have to factor in as well that this is a unique season for a couple of reasons and whether by design or coincidence, their design concept lost more performance with the reg change for this year than their main competitor and there was/is way less opportunity to change anything fundamental claw it back than in a regular season.

I think the truth is probably there's little in terms of significant upgrades they can do given budget cap, resource allocation for next season, and the limited opportunity to change the car much in the offseason. There may be a bunch of stuff sitting in the factory to bolt on as one if there's an emergency need, or the shelves are bare.

I expect they'll tell all at the end of the season.

[SiLo]

Tbh they just got the strat wrong. They had the data from Ricciardo and Bottas to see the pace on the outlap, should have just pit Hamilton the lap after Bottas.

to me, 3 seconds is just not comfortable enough to cover a 1 lap undercut if you have any kind of issue at the pitstop.

[El Scorchio]

Tbh they just got the strat wrong. They had the data from Ricciardo and Bottas to see the pace on the outlap, should have just pit Hamilton the lap after Bottas.

to me, 3 seconds is just not comfortable enough to cover a 1 lap undercut if you have any kind of issue at the pitstop.

That seems to be a recurring theme of late. There are only so many times 'this is what the numbers suggested' is a tolerated excuse. Of course strategy always becomes much harder when you have or can manufacture no or only minimal pace advantage. They are susceptible to both undercuts and overcuts this season because of the tyre warming issues, which is a huge disadvantage compared to RBR. I think being jumped in the pits is a theme which will carry on all season unless they can switch the tyres on quicker/better.

[WaikeCU]

Here's my take on things happening right now.

- Ever since the W12 got introduced to the world, was it Allison that said the car basically 90% the same as the W11?
- Then there's the mysterious rumours on how Merc were going to use the tokens for updates this season. Is there any news on that if they have used any at all so far?
- Despite having lost out for the past 3 races in a row to RB, I still feel they remain call with the momentum shift moving to RB right now.

So because of the above, I think maybe Merc planned to use the W12 just to do the bare minimum effort of getting the job done so far and when they don't get the job done, just settling for what's the best result possible in that outcome. Just be thereabouts in the championship within strong contention of fighting for the championships.

We've seen it in the past with Mclaren and Ferrari, where they delayed an introduction of their new car for the season. Are we maybe not realizing this is the case at Merc atm? Are we going to see a Merc that we should have seen at the start of the season, but maybe only introduced after the Summer break for example?

It would bring the meaning of sandbagging to an entirely new level.