2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[JPower]

What I notice with these young drivers is they spend a lot of time in the simulators; especially at home.
Lewis is a grown man and doesn't have much time for doing the same because he has his various engagements.
This may be a possible weakness and something he may need to adapt to keep sharp. He is part of the playstation generation, but young guys like Norris who are as sharp as a razor are part of the race sim generation.
They hone their skills all day on the sim, and it explains why they are so brave on track at high speed.. and sometimes foolish as well.
Lewis will need to make sure his reactions and stamina are at their best if he is to face George. Maybe he needs to put down the piano and buy a sim chair.

Oh brother.

[nimoraca]

What I notice with these young drivers is they spend a lot of time in the simulators; especially at home.
Lewis is a grown man and doesn't have much time for doing the same because he has his various engagements.
This may be a possible weakness and something he may need to adapt to keep sharp. He is part of the playstation generation, but young guys like Norris who are as sharp as a razor are part of the race sim generation.
They hone their skills all day on the sim, and it explains why they are so brave on track at high speed.. and sometimes foolish as well.
Lewis will need to make sure his reactions and stamina are at their best if he is to face George. Maybe he needs to put down the piano and buy a sim chair.

George still has a lot to prove. He really hasn't driven against top tier drivers in the same car so far. The only race he did for Merc, he got outqualified by Bottas and was not able to drive away from Bottas in the race. The only thing he did better than Bottas was the start. Lewis usually has no problem driving away from Bottas in the race. I do understand that he was new to the car, but again nothing is a given.

[El Scorchio]

Lewis has started taking to the simulator this year after he realized upgrades will be few and far in between. He's not a simulator man like the twitch quartet and Max who have simulators at home.

And that's the scary thing. He doesn't live and breathe it and study it like all his rivals, but still produces the goods constantly. Reminds me of Ronnie in the snooker.

[Zynerji]

I am not British and I like Sky. Crofty says dumb stuff but I don't mind. To be honest they are a bit biased at times, but not excessive in my opinion.

Well I am British & I detest everything about it

The shows are boring & stuffy, and so is most of the presenting team too

The worst part is race commentary where they feel the need to constantly explain the rules, and how DRS works etc.

Could you imagine football presenters explaining what a corner is, or why a players off-side

What really irks me how Brundle tells with passion the advice once Murray Walker once have him about commentating… you do t have to be correct, you e just got to be exciting…

Just a pity Brundle decided to do the exact opposite of that. If you put a cardboard cut-out in his place you’d never notice

But that aside, I don’t think they’re anymore partisan than they… like everyone on this planet… has a right to be

They call things how they see it, as ex-racers… not partisans

They are a prominent example of the British media that is foisted upon the rest of the world. I mentioned it because I wasn't sure if you were aware if that's what one gets as the default provided commentary stream when paying for F1TV

Yes I’m aware. More people outside of China speak English than any other language, so it’s an obvious choice

But, like if it was a German broadcasting company they would be a little German leaning, or Spanish or Italian lean a little towards Spain or Italy

You can’t be seriously blaming these people for that can you? Or accusing them of being partisan just because they’re British, or accusing the the British media of all being partisan… can you ?

Well i do like when Rosberg is in there , Brundle is too old for these cars i think

I thought Jenson was great. I'd take him full time!

[nacho]

The only race he did for Merc, he got outqualified by Bottas and was not able to drive away from Bottas in the race. The only thing he did better than Bottas was the start.

Not really, Bottas was on pole but Russell had good qualifying, start and race. We never got to see if Bottas could have made a move but you can't expect Russell to runaway from a regular driver, it was a great drive.

[maxxer]

Well I am British & I detest everything about it

The shows are boring & stuffy, and so is most of the presenting team too

The worst part is race commentary where they feel the need to constantly explain the rules, and how DRS works etc.

Could you imagine football presenters explaining what a corner is, or why a players off-side

What really irks me how Brundle tells with passion the advice once Murray Walker once have him about commentating… you do t have to be correct, you e just got to be exciting…

Just a pity Brundle decided to do the exact opposite of that. If you put a cardboard cut-out in his place you’d never notice

But that aside, I don’t think they’re anymore partisan than they… like everyone on this planet… has a right to be

They call things how they see it, as ex-racers… not partisans



Yes I’m aware. More people outside of China speak English than any other language, so it’s an obvious choice

But, like if it was a German broadcasting company they would be a little German leaning, or Spanish or Italian lean a little towards Spain or Italy

You can’t be seriously blaming these people for that can you? Or accusing them of being partisan just because they’re British, or accusing the the British media of all being partisan… can you ?

Well i do like when Rosberg is in there , Brundle is too old for these cars i think

I thought Jenson was great. I'd take him full time!

Yes he is also a non biased exdriver and did win a world championship love to hear his excitement about racing

[dans79]

Id take the "kid" in any adaptation competition. The quickness that the 18-24 year-olds that I hire pick up, and even improve processes, is astounding. I simply don't find that when I deal with embedded and experienced people.

That might be specific to your industry then, because in my industry its the exact opposite. The young ones are still stuck in the "this is how you do it because it's what I learned in college" mode. In my industry what you learn in college is overly simplistic and not relevant to real world problems. The older people who have been working in the real world longer are much more adaptable/flexible.

Simple fact of elite sporting competition is, young talent always outshines old guards. Motorsport is even more demanding on the human reflexes that start waning in 30s and abundantly powerful in youth. No escaping that fact. Senna, Schumacher, Lewis, Seb, Max, Leclerc, Lando have all proved it. A driver, no matter how great the career has been, at 37 Vs a young, proven talent at 24, is no match. F1 is not a 8 to 5 desk job.

O please....

I've been a high level athlete, and I've seen an older athlete absolutely curb stomp a young (highly touted one) into the ground. There is a lot more to being a high level athlete, than physical fitness and reflexes.

Imo, the higher you get the more your experience and intelligence comes into play, because the differences between you and your competitors are smaller.

[Just_a_fan]

F1TV helpfully provides a second English stream called 'the pit lane channel'. This is also hosted by native English speakers so it provides a nice and direct comparison with the Sky crew - It's then that it becomes easier to really notice the difference in partisanship.

I encourage everyone to check it out, it's a shame it's not more widely watched.

I'd be happy to look at F1TV. But being in the UK I'm not allowed to thanks to Sky having the broadcast rights. As I won't pay them, I have to resort to finding live streams on the internet. It's the Sky broadcast, of course, but it's free.

I dislike Croft - the guy's an over excited puppy most of the time. At least Brundle has driven the current generation of cars even if only pootling around doing a piece for the broadcast. Others are also current or recent racing drivers so at least there is some understanding of the realities of the sport. DiResta's hatred of Hamilton shines through, Davidson gives good assessments of things. They're not a bad bunch if one could just get rid of Croft.

Are they a bit pro-British? Probably, but then any commentary team is generally for its own nation. It's worth remembering that F1 is predominantly "British" with most teams based in the UK and a significant if not majority of personnel being British. Even the foreign teams are really British - Mercedes and Red Bull might fly a foreign flag but the reality is that they're British.

[Just_a_fan]

What I notice with these young drivers is they spend a lot of time in the simulators; especially at home.
Lewis is a grown man and doesn't have much time for doing the same because he has his various engagements.
This may be a possible weakness and something he may need to adapt to keep sharp. He is part of the playstation generation, but young guys like Norris who are as sharp as a razor are part of the race sim generation.
They hone their skills all day on the sim, and it explains why they are so brave on track at high speed.. and sometimes foolish as well.
Lewis will need to make sure his reactions and stamina are at their best if he is to face George. Maybe he needs to put down the piano and buy a sim chair.

Hamilton has stated that he doesn't get much from using the simulator. I wonder if it's because it's not real. Perhaps his way of driving just doesn't translate to the simulator.

[Just_a_fan]

Lewis has started taking to the simulator this year after he realized upgrades will be few and far in between. He's not a simulator man like the twitch quartet and Max who have simulators at home.

And that's the scary thing. He doesn't live and breathe it and study it like all his rivals, but still produces the goods constantly. Reminds me of Ronnie in the snooker.

I think that's not true. Listen to interviews with team members and they will tell you that he does work very hard, puts in the hours with the engineers etc. Bottas stated that one of his biggest surprises when he arrived at Mercedes was finding out that Hamilton does actually work incredibly hard. Hamilton has this image of always being off at an event somewhere, but it seems it's not quite how the media like to portray it.

[JordanMugen]

Hamilton has stated that he doesn't get much from using the simulator. I wonder if it's because it's not real. Perhaps his way of driving just doesn't translate to the simulator.

I doubt that! But good sim drivers can get by with less feedback cues compared to real vehicles. Perhaps this ability to drive the car fast even with a distilled set of information helps in the real world?

[El Scorchio]

Lewis has started taking to the simulator this year after he realized upgrades will be few and far in between. He's not a simulator man like the twitch quartet and Max who have simulators at home.

And that's the scary thing. He doesn't live and breathe it and study it like all his rivals, but still produces the goods constantly. Reminds me of Ronnie in the snooker.

I think that's not true. Listen to interviews with team members and they will tell you that he does work very hard, puts in the hours with the engineers etc. Bottas stated that one of his biggest surprises when he arrived at Mercedes was finding out that Hamilton does actually work incredibly hard. Hamilton has this image of always being off at an event somewhere, but it seems it's not quite how the media like to portray it.

I was being a bit flippant to be fair. I think he obviously does a bit more than he lets on, but he does compartmentalise F1 from other parts of his life and it’s not an all consuming thing for him, like the others. Of course he puts in the hours but he’s ‘off’ whenever he can be as well.

[aMessageToCharlie]

Interesting team radio from Bottas:


You can tell he's fed up with the games. Also read a story saying it was Bottas' decision to not accept a 1 year deal again no matter what and therefore a joint decision to not re-sign.

Interested to see if there will be a change in the working relationship for the remainder of the season.

[El Scorchio]

Interesting team radio from Bottas:


You can tell he's fed up with the games. Also read a story saying it was Bottas' decision to not accept a 1 year deal again no matter what and therefore a joint decision to not re-sign.

Interested to see if there will be a change in the working relationship for the remainder of the season.

Games? It's just doing what his employers ask of him. If he doesn't like it, then he needed to put himself in the position where it's not him that has to support his team mate, to avoid it happening.

[Ryar]

Lewis has started taking to the simulator this year after he realized upgrades will be few and far in between. He's not a simulator man like the twitch quartet and Max who have simulators at home.

And that's the scary thing. He doesn't live and breathe it and study it like all his rivals, but still produces the goods constantly. Reminds me of Ronnie in the snooker.

I think that's not true. Listen to interviews with team members and they will tell you that he does work very hard, puts in the hours with the engineers etc. Bottas stated that one of his biggest surprises when he arrived at Mercedes was finding out that Hamilton does actually work incredibly hard. Hamilton has this image of always being off at an event somewhere, but it seems it's not quite how the media like to portray it.

The puzzle is, nobody knows the aspects of his hard work. I am sure he does. Natural talent alone doesn't make one successful. He has never liked testing, either Sim or on track. Schumacher never liked Sim, but was always testing on track as it was allowed then. Some people get motion sickness in simulators. With all the young drivers doing various simulator activities, it's an area that might just become a weakness for Lewis, regardless of what other areas he is working hard. George is known to be a very intelligent individual as was heard from various people within Williams and his ability to constantly learn things and learn them fast. He is also known to be very clear and precise in his feedback. He might become more likeable within the team with all those qualities and if he does that quickly, it might cause more problems to Lewis in many ways. That is what Jenson did to him at McLaren. With all the experiences Lewis has, it's interesting to see how he manages it.