2021 Austrian Grand Prix - Spielberg, July 02 - 04

[Ryar]

George Russell, half a second behind Bottas! Ola Kallenius watching, he must asking for George's papers to sign immediately, if not already done.

[Pyrone89]

Mercedes should have been on pole. Mercedes had the pace to take pole today. Too many mistakes.

No, RB was a bit faster on this track.

[Carl Mccoy]

Mercedes losing a lot of time to McLaren in sector one. McLaren choose qualifying pace over race pace. With same engine quarter of a second is huge margin

[zibby43]

Lando and Russell are the stars of today.

[Schuttelberg]

Narrative incoming- RBR are 0.250 ahead even now. McLaren are now 0.2000 ahead.

[Sieper]

Mercedes has some inward looking to do.

Either the floor changes hurt them that bad or they got complacent and totally whiffed the design. I think it’s a bit of both.

Well they’ve *lost* 1s of performance (minimum) at every track compared to last year with every vital component of the car frozen except for aero surfaces and 2 tokens, with the only changes being floor/rear brake ducts/diffuser.

So yeah, the changes finally did them in. And the higher-rake teams did a good job.

No DAS which was very important to get heat in their tires. Maybe especially with low rake. Plus, especially early season, no single lap ice settings that were impossible to police.

[JordanMugen]

Well they’ve *lost* 1s of performance (minimum) at every track compared to last year with every vital component of the car frozen except for aero surfaces and 2 tokens, with the only changes being floor/rear brake ducts/diffuser.

Mercedes said themselves they welcome competition, so they must be pleased to have some teams to chase!

It becomes up to Hamilton and Bottas to hook it up on maximum attack, in the style of Norris.

[zibby43]

Mercedes has some inward looking to do.

Either the floor changes hurt them that bad or they got complacent and totally whiffed the design. I think it’s a bit of both.

Well they’ve *lost* 1s of performance (minimum) at every track compared to last year with every vital component of the car frozen except for aero surfaces and 2 tokens, with the only changes being floor/rear brake ducts/diffuser.

So yeah, the changes finally did them in. And the higher-rake teams did a good job.

No DAS which was very important to get heat in their tires. Maybe especially with low rake.plus, especially early season. No single lap ice settings that were impossible to police.

It ain’t DAS.

It ain’t the quali modes. Those were lost halfway through the season.

And the Merc-powered McLaren was fine today.

Both Aston and Merc have lost the most performance of the top teams from last year. And Allison already confirmed it was “hellishly” difficult to find any aero gains after those changes.

It’s that simple. Why look for any other reasons? It doesn’t minimize the fact that after the changes, RBR’s concept finally paid off.

[Sieper]

George Russell, half a second behind Bottas! Ola Kallenius watching, he must asking for George's papers to sign immediately, if not already done.

Done and dusted. In Spain already. If I read the signs correct, but there are so so many.

[Hoffman900]

Well they’ve *lost* 1s of performance (minimum) at every track compared to last year with every vital component of the car frozen except for aero surfaces and 2 tokens, with the only changes being floor/rear brake ducts/diffuser.

Mercedes said themselves they welcome competition, so they must be pleased to have some teams to chase!

It becomes up to Hamilton and Bottas to hook it up on maximum attack, in the style of Norris.

It only took a rule change

[TimW]

Mercedes just accepted they could not win in dry conditions. So they put on more downforce and hope for a wet race. Easy 3rd & 4rd if its dry, 'easy' 1st & ??? If its wet.

[zibby43]

Well they’ve *lost* 1s of performance (minimum) at every track compared to last year with every vital component of the car frozen except for aero surfaces and 2 tokens, with the only changes being floor/rear brake ducts/diffuser.

Mercedes said themselves they welcome competition, so they must be pleased to have some teams to chase!

It becomes up to Hamilton and Bottas to hook it up on maximum attack, in the style of Norris.

A few fans of a certain team are really enjoying the Merc schadenfreude this year. No need to veil it. Just let it out.

[Sieper]

Well they’ve *lost* 1s of performance (minimum) at every track compared to last year with every vital component of the car frozen except for aero surfaces and 2 tokens, with the only changes being floor/rear brake ducts/diffuser.

So yeah, the changes finally did them in. And the higher-rake teams did a good job.

No DAS which was very important to get heat in their tires. Maybe especially with low rake.plus, especially early season. No single lap ice settings that were impossible to police.

It ain’t DAS.

It ain’t the quali modes. Those were lost halfway through the season.

And the Merc-powered McLaren was fine today.

Both Aston and Merc have lost the most performance of the top teams from last year. And Allison already confirmed it was “hellishly” difficult to find any aero gains after those changes.

It’s that simple. Why look for any other reasons? It doesn’t minimize the fact that after the changes, RBR’s concept finally paid off.

Why sweep them off the table? We were comparing Merc to Merc last season and here they still had both these things last year. Imho that was worth the largest part of the second of pace they lost.

[etusch]

Mercedes just accepted they could not win in dry conditions. So they put on more downforce and hope for a wet race. Easy 3rd & 4rd if its dry, 'easy' 1st & ??? If its wet.

It is not 1st if it rains but easy 1st? Why easy ? Because if it is not easy not achievable right ?

[JordanMugen]

Why sweep them off the table? We were comparing Merc to Merc last season and here they still had both these things last year. Imho that was worth the largest part of the second of pace they lost.

But so what? It wasn't a deliberate rule change against Mercedes and Aston Martin, else that would have noted in the analysis when the rules were announced. It's just one of those things, and it's up to Mercedes and Aston Martin to press on at maximum attack.

For instance, Red Bull had to drop their trusty V8s in 2014, Ferrari had to drop their trusty short-stint Bridgestones in 2005. These things happen.

Edit - By it I mean the floor. Of course the change of the steering regulations was deliberate.