This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
The performance gap between Mercedes' customer teams is due to software differences and delays in the distribution of the latest engines.
Customer teams like McLaren, Williams, and Alpine only received their latest engines at the Australian Grand Prix, leaving them lagging behind in terms of performance.
Does the software differences mean receiving it late like the spec PU or that Mercedes give customer teams different software to theirs?
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
I am sure McLaren (and the rest of the customers) will be getting more candies when Mercedes makes themselves sure they are not a threat in the Championship.
It's expected. The engine freeze almost entirely neutralised the manufacturer advantage, now we're back to normal. I'm sure McLaren will improve their deployment, but Merc has probably run this engine on every single track on the calendar in virtual track tests. Everywhere they go they will be one step ahead on the software optimisation. Getting a seat at the table was always PR spin, no manufacturer is going to invest a billion dollars into an engine project to let some customer walk away with the big prize.
The seat at the table might be legit when it comes to getting earlier physical blueprints, but if Mercedes doesn’t share detailed data, it doesn’t do you much favors.
I think its mostly this particular regulation set that gives manufacturers a big edge, since the way you recharge/deploy is hugely significant for performance. I disagree with others though, this is not a 2014 scenario. In 2014 Mercedes literally gave their customers a weaker unit. They can’t do that anymore. Customers will eventually figure this out, but until they do, Mercedes will have a big edge on their customers.
In any case I dont think McLaren had any other better options. A reunion with Honda was probably never going to happen and if it did we would have had a total meltdown here. When it comes to building their own PU, they’re probably at least 4 years away from having the facilities required to have a competitive in-house engine. That is if they took the decision today.
They have to live with it, because it was the best they could do at the moment, engine-wise.
Race pace was awful but like I said yesterday with all of the problems we are facing and since this was the first time for us with the new PU, it was to be expected. What a shame for PIA, infornt of his home crowd.... : (
As for the race, it sucked big time, whoever has battery left is so much faster than the other car, is this what we wanted when we asked for DRS to be removed? In China next week, this problem will only go worse.
Again, it’s encouraging that there is some low hanging fruit to be had from the PU it’s just how long will it take to figure it out?
"The discussion with HPP about having more information has been going on for weeks because even in testing, we were pretty much going on track, running the car, looking at the data, and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s what we have. Good, now we react to what we have.’ That’s not how you work in Formula One," Stella revealed to GPblog.
Mercedes shafting their customers just like 2014. In my opinion it's going to be much harder with the open engine development for Mclaren to compete with Mercedes.
What happened to the story that Zak Brown got a "seat at the table" with HPP? I always thought that was PR spin..
Do the regs allow PU development? I thought the only development allowed was to catch up? Not to further increase an advantage?
Just a fan's point of view*
*statement was relevant when the forum had a high level of intelligence. Now we are just equals.
I think its mostly this particular regulation set that gives manufacturers a big edge, since the way you recharge/deploy is hugely significant for performance. I disagree with others though, this is not a 2014 scenario. In 2014 Mercedes literally gave their customers a weaker unit. They can’t do that anymore. Customers will eventually figure this out, but until they do, Mercedes will have a big edge on their customers.
Mclaren will eventually figure it out, and then Mercedes drops a brand new PU on them next year. And it happens again and again and again because the PU regs are not frozen. Mercedes is always going to be 1 step ahead.
I think its mostly this particular regulation set that gives manufacturers a big edge, since the way you recharge/deploy is hugely significant for performance. I disagree with others though, this is not a 2014 scenario. In 2014 Mercedes literally gave their customers a weaker unit. They can’t do that anymore. Customers will eventually figure this out, but until they do, Mercedes will have a big edge on their customers.
Mclaren will eventually figure it out, and then Mercedes drops a brand new PU on them next year. And it happens again and again and again because the PU regs are not frozen. Mercedes is always going to be 1 step ahead.
The learning curve is way less with each year though. The fundamentals remain similar. This first year will be the toughest.
I think its mostly this particular regulation set that gives manufacturers a big edge, since the way you recharge/deploy is hugely significant for performance. I disagree with others though, this is not a 2014 scenario. In 2014 Mercedes literally gave their customers a weaker unit. They can’t do that anymore. Customers will eventually figure this out, but until they do, Mercedes will have a big edge on their customers.
Mclaren will eventually figure it out, and then Mercedes drops a brand new PU on them next year. And it happens again and again and again because the PU regs are not frozen. Mercedes is always going to be 1 step ahead.
The learning curve is way less with each year though. The fundamentals remain similar. This first year will be the toughest.
Thats the theory, as long as Mercedes doesn't drag their feet and/or go out of their way to do something that will reset the knowledge base for the customers. FIA really should be tightening up these PU supply regs. What's coming out now just looks really poor.
I thought all PU customers had to have identical hardware and software.
I thought so too, surely that's the case.
Q: (Stefano Mancini – La Stampa) Kimi, will you help Vettel to win his championship this year?
Kimi Raikkonen: I can only drive one car, obviously.
@2018 Singapore Grand Prix drivers press conference.
