2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[JordanMugen]

You focus development on make huge steps for the next year.

They'll want to fix correlation first by ensuring small steps work as expected, no?

They had huge steps on the 2022 virtual car and 2024 virtual car that did not appear on circuit.

[venkyhere]

I think the "bottom of the barrel" was touched today, in this team's journey in the current ground effects era.
A seven time world champion driver on relatively new tyres, sitting in their car, lining up behind the heaviest, draggiest, poorest engine-d car on the entire grid (Alpine), complaining - "these guys are so fast, I am not able to catch up".

It was really sad to hear. Not joking or trolling. Like, really.

[DGP123]

I think the "bottom of the barrel" was touched today, in this team's journey in the current ground effects era.
A seven time world champion driver on relatively new tyres, sitting in their car, lining up behind the heaviest, draggiest, poorest engine-d car on the entire grid (Alpine), complaining - "these guys are so fast, I am not able to catch up".

It was really sad to hear. Not joking or trolling. Like, really.

Yeah, but don’t worry. According to his fans, George is finishing P6 most weekends, showcasing how good the car is, and everything is rosy.

This weekend didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know. Mercedes are a shambles, from top to bottom. Some have abandoned ship, and some are trying to unsuccessfully dig themselves out of it. Then there’s others, including his fans, who seem content to ride the P6 wave to an F1 career of total and utter failure. As long as he’s beating one specific individual, they’re happy and content, while completely ignoring the fact their team has become a laughing stock, and pretty much a midfield irrelevance in F1. Strange stuff

[Waz]

Russell most definitely doesn't just opt for the safe baseline, or is content with 6th to 8th. That's the reality of the level of the car.

What's the point in trying mythological extreme setup that doesn't bring any better results? It's obviously not providing any useful data either, as the improvement is not coming.

Engineering wise, Mercedes have slipped to the 5th best team from 4th last year. Other teams would have attempted a major restructuring by now but Toto is asleep on his entitlement.

[Venturiation]

[ringo]

The supension changes to control the aero platform seem to make the mechanics of the car worse.
The team is lacking understanding of the formula.
Zero pod car was not really better. Back then other teams were learning. Now the competition is more experienced and more competitive hence why W15 looks so slow.
The thing is even Sauber looks good sometimes and RB. As i said before, this team is turning back to earth dreams honda little by little.

[Venturiation]

Still salty that lewis choose a better team

[DGP123]

Don’t worry, Simone Resta will fix this

[Exumer]

How many engineers Toto lost in the last 3-4 years? Mike Elliot got sacked for 2023 car but 2024 car is even worse. Even narrower sweet spot and race pace got worse as well as tyre deg in comparison to the 2022 and 2023 cars. Will Toto let James Allison go as well, I remember James saying during Bahrain pre-season tests that MB has a better race pace than Ferrari.

[Luscion]

[Cs98]

That statement is obviously true. To claim the opposite would be like saying the race engineer is more important than the driver for the driving of the car because they offer "feedback" to the driver. Engineers develop the car, drivers drive it.

[Exumer]

Speaking of race engineers. Seeing as LH keep experimenting with his setups, wouldn't it be better if Bono advise him not to do it or make suggestions etc? It seems that they both lost a bit.

[Cs98]

Russell most definitely doesn't just opt for the safe baseline, or is content with 6th to 8th. That's the reality of the level of the car.

What's the point in trying mythological extreme setup that doesn't bring any better results? It's obviously not providing any useful data either, as the improvement is not coming.

Engineering wise, Mercedes have slipped to the 5th best team from 4th last year. Other teams would have attempted a major restructuring by now but Toto is asleep on his entitlement.

The point is to keep the boat from rocking. Let Hamilton have his set-up excuses in public if it helps him deal with losing out to George. The alternative, being honest about it, could just upset him and lead to unnecessary public conflict for the team. Toto has experience from 2016, he doesn't want another war of words in the media, or another "maybe they're sabotaging me" inference from media darling Hamilton.

[Luscion]

Russell most definitely doesn't just opt for the safe baseline, or is content with 6th to 8th. That's the reality of the level of the car.

What's the point in trying mythological extreme setup that doesn't bring any better results? It's obviously not providing any useful data either, as the improvement is not coming.

Engineering wise, Mercedes have slipped to the 5th best team from 4th last year. Other teams would have attempted a major restructuring by now but Toto is asleep on his entitlement.

The point is to keep the boat from rocking. Let Hamilton have his set-up excuses in public if it helps him deal with losing out to George. The alternative, being honest about it, could just upset him and lead to unnecessary public conflict for the team. Toto has experience from 2016, he doesn't want another war of words in the media, or another "maybe they're sabotaging me" inference from media darling Hamilton.

Looking at the race you could see Lewis had issues George didnt in the slow speed corners, he would lose 2-4 tenths in the slow speed and gain it back everywhere else, its why he couldnt pass Ocon or Piastri despite him having damage. Lewis also admitted that him not getting into Q2 was his fault and not the car or the team's

[ringo]

The extreme setups are useful. The result bad or good is not the point of the setups. It's to see how the car behaves at that extreme and the team moves in a certain direction from there.
Merc have been 5th fastest this season and last season. Lewis almost came 2nd in the championship with the 5th best car and no one remembers or respects that. What's the point in driving to repeat that this year?
Might as well experiment to improve the car.