2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[SiLo]

Is anyone else concerned by the reliability of the Merc engine?

Russell out with an issue

Ricciardo with an issue which ment he had less power for the rest of the race

RICs power unit was fine. Where did you see it reported he was down on power for the rest of the race? Even the MCL team-stream said the unit was all ok after some switching.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ricci ... g/6617944/

You are right that he got it back. I didn't read it clearly.

Food for thought though. Lost power and told to stay out of the slipstream to cool the car.

Then there is Russell who had to DNF due to a power unit issue

It was hydraulics pressure they lost, that was what they were topping up at the pitstops.

[SiLo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJhF6_Nwk9A

Great video of Ant Davidson driving the W12 at Silverstone for a filming day. Got me thinking - can teams have more than 1 driver per FP session? Or do they have the register just one?

I was thinking that it would be very valuable to the sim team to have the sim driver get some semi regular time in the car just to keep updating how it feels. Especially for those times where they need to work overtime to find some speed and the drivers themselves aren't there to provide that feedback.

[214270]

I don’t know whether anyone saw RUSs onboard in quali. He switched to the higher power mode very late in his build lap, just before sweeping onto the main straight suggesting there’s still a problem with deployment. Coupled with HAM over the radio complaining about multiple derates; it does make you wonder how they’ve managed to drop the ball so bad.

Wonder whether we're seeing the impact of Cowell's departure. Mercedes HPP, despite the big talk around the new plenum, etc., has truly dropped the ball this year relative to Honda.

Merc do have form making design errors like a couple of years ago when they miscalculated the cooling requirements and under-designed the rads; silly mistakes. It could be that it’s Cowell related, I don’t know.

Either way, deployment appears to have suffered and doesn’t even appear to be on par with last years PU.

[214270]

RICs power unit was fine. Where did you see it reported he was down on power for the rest of the race? Even the MCL team-stream said the unit was all ok after some switching.

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ricci ... g/6617944/

You are right that he got it back. I didn't read it clearly.

Food for thought though. Lost power and told to stay out of the slipstream to cool the car.

Then there is Russell who had to DNF due to a power unit issue

It was hydraulics pressure they lost, that was what they were topping up at the pitstops.

I believe it was pneumatic and therefore air pressure related.

[SiLo]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ricci ... g/6617944/

You are right that he got it back. I didn't read it clearly.

Food for thought though. Lost power and told to stay out of the slipstream to cool the car.

Then there is Russell who had to DNF due to a power unit issue

It was hydraulics pressure they lost, that was what they were topping up at the pitstops.

I believe it was pneumatic and therefore air pressure related.

That's the one. Likely from an ancillary system.

[Dee]

Can I get an analysis/people's views on higher tyre pressures and higher temperatures making the RB better on performance and tyre degradation vs the Merc

If we get new tyres that lower the pressures, could we see the degradation come back for Red Bull and a slight race pace advantage for Mercedes?

[Dee]

It was hydraulics pressure they lost, that was what they were topping up at the pitstops.

I believe it was pneumatic and therefore air pressure related.

That's the one. Likely from an ancillary system.

I'd be really happy if new articles put in an update/edit with the current reasons for what happened during the race, then a lot of people would not be using information that is out of date!

[Pyrone89]

Can I get an analysis/people's views on higher tyre pressures and higher temperatures making the RB better on performance and tyre degradation vs the Merc

If we get new tyres that lower the pressures, could we see the degradation come back for Red Bull and a slight race pace advantage for Mercedes?

Likely

[SiLo]

I believe it was pneumatic and therefore air pressure related.

That's the one. Likely from an ancillary system.

I'd be really happy if new articles put in an update/edit with the current reasons for what happened during the race, then a lot of people would not be using information that is out of date!

Lol stop expecting journalists to actually DO journalism!

[matt_b]

I think 3 issues are causing what we are seeing.

1) the substandard Pirelli tires
2) the brake duct changes that hurt low rake concepts more than high rake ones.
3) Merc's refusal to do any real development on the W12.

Don't forget the higher tyre pressure that started from Baku, before then you could not say that RB had better tyre degradation than Mercedes

Also the hotter weather, was the Styrian GP the first real hot race we have had so far? RB car is well known to perform better in the heat

Higher tyre pressures came in after Baku following Max's crash so it cant be that because RB were a comfortable 1-2 in that race and equally important fact...with an old engine

[Dee]

I think 3 issues are causing what we are seeing.

1) the substandard Pirelli tires
2) the brake duct changes that hurt low rake concepts more than high rake ones.
3) Merc's refusal to do any real development on the W12.

Don't forget the higher tyre pressure that started from Baku, before then you could not say that RB had better tyre degradation than Mercedes

Also the hotter weather, was the Styrian GP the first real hot race we have had so far? RB car is well known to perform better in the heat

Higher tyre pressures came in after Baku following Max's crash so it cant be that because RB were a comfortable 1-2 in that race and equally important fact...with an old engine

Did Pirelli not adjust their tyres pressures up for Baku? Increasing them from Friday to Saturday...

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/pire ... e/6536185/

Tyre pressure were increased for that race, a race where RB had the pace and hardly any tyre degradation

[SiLo]

Can I get an analysis/people's views on higher tyre pressures and higher temperatures making the RB better on performance and tyre degradation vs the Merc

If we get new tyres that lower the pressures, could we see the degradation come back for Red Bull and a slight race pace advantage for Mercedes?

Likely

I saw an article that said Lewis found a very odd setup direction that gave them more 1 lap pace, but might have affected their tyre wear, so they are looking into it.

https://f1i.com/news/410428-mercedes-su ... tyria.html

[Dee]

Can I get an analysis/people's views on higher tyre pressures and higher temperatures making the RB better on performance and tyre degradation vs the Merc

If we get new tyres that lower the pressures, could we see the degradation come back for Red Bull and a slight race pace advantage for Mercedes?

Likely

I saw an article that said Lewis found a very odd setup direction that gave them more 1 lap pace, but might have affected their tyre wear, so they are looking into it.

https://f1i.com/news/410428-mercedes-su ... tyria.html

Yes, read that as well. Also interesting to note as heard on the missed apex podcast that Merc have never been good in Austria during the years that they had close battles. 2018, 2021 which was won by Max and RB. Maybe it's a Max circuit and the high rake car has characteristics that make it just that bit better

[El Scorchio]

I believe it was pneumatic and therefore air pressure related.

That's the one. Likely from an ancillary system.

I'd be really happy if new articles put in an update/edit with the current reasons for what happened during the race, then a lot of people would not be using information that is out of date!

That is quite bad. You can forgive it from a big publication like a national news outlet where 95% of the people just want to read the bare minimum of detail 'Ricciardo had a problem due to an ancill......zzzzzz', but from Autosport and the like you might rightly expect a bit more!

[zibby43]

Shovlin said that Mercedes explored a radical set-up change leading up to the GP, developed by Hamilton in the simulator, and that it may have hurt their race pace and neutralized their rear degradation advantage.

“It is a difficult and quite peculiar circuit and Red Bull are normally strong here. But we’re also exploring a fairly wacky direction with the set-up as a radical approach, which I think was maybe a bit better on the single lap. The question that remains is whether we’ve hurt our degradation and we need to look at that in the next day or two.”

Full article:

https://www.racefans.net/2021/06/28/wac ... race-pace/

Interesting. Hamilton rarely uses the simulator so it shows that he's using every tool he can to try to get pace in to the car. That's good to see, I think, as it shows there is still the passion to win.

Agreed.

Ross Brawn did an interesting column today where he stated he thinks Merc have scope to close up the small deficit they’re facing, and that it wouldn’t take too many resources to come up with a new rear wing.

Hamilton just asked his team for a new RW design this weekend.

On a side note, Mercedes just had a 5% swing (relative to RBR) worth of wind tunnel time head back in its direction by virtue of the standings.