2024 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[Hammerfist]

If you listen to Allison its clear they dont expect to be that high on the grid at the upcoming tracks. Canada has no long duration high speed corners at all. It is a point and shoot track and the temps favored Merc. So we should expect redbull, mclaren and ferrari to be ahead in Barcelona.

Though i am intrigued by Allison’s ambition of outdeveloping the others over the course of the year. It seems he thinks they can end the year as the fastest car. Ominous if that happened. Hamilton might rue his decision to leave then.

[Luscion]

If you listen to Allison its clear they dont expect to be that high on the grid at the upcoming tracks. Canada has no long duration high speed corners at all. It is a point and shoot track and the temps favored Merc. So we should expect redbull, mclaren and ferrari to be ahead in Barcelona.

Though i am intrigued by Allison’s ambition of outdeveloping the others over the course of the year. It seems he thinks they can end the year as the fastest car. Ominous if that happened. Hamilton might rue his decision to leave then.

Yea, My interpretation of it is he expects to be fighting for podiums just maybe not for wins yet like they could in Canada, "competitive but not right at the front", He's said last week he expects Red Bull to be back to their normal selves at traditional tracks.

If the reports are true Merc plan on bringing upgrades non stop until the Belgium GP, with a big upgrade coming before summer break according to Ted (which tbf every top team will most likely be doing), so the goal could be right before or after the summer break to start winning races

[ringo]

What's interesting about Allyson's answers is that they pit Lewis first for the girst safety car, but gave him the less durable tyre to run with to the end. George pit second for the harder tyre which admittedly by Allyson was the best strategy to try to win. The mediums were expected to grain and fall off like what happened to Piastri. Then why didnt they put Lewis on the hard tyre at the first stop?
I think it's simply part of their strategy to avoid the #1 driver clashing with Lewis by being on the same tyre on the same stint.
Were they planning to pit Lewis a second time near the end of allow him to limp home on the grained mediums if there wasnt a second sagety car?
Anyhow they have to do what works best for the team.
As fit Barcelona James pretty much saying we we will be fighting for 7th and 8th again.
Checo wont underpeform here at this normal track.

[organic]

What's interesting about Allyson's answers is that they pit Lewis first for the girst safety car, but gave him the less durable tyre to run with to the end. George pit second for the harder tyre which admittedly by Allyson was the best strategy to try to win. The mediums were expected to grain and fall off like what happened to Piastri. Then why didnt they put Lewis on the hard tyre at the first stop?

Lewis pitted much earlier than other frontrunners and gambled on the slicks being quick earlier than they were. The mediums have far better warmup and this makes a large difference in mixed conditions. Considering Lewis went out on a wetter track, warmup was deemed more important and mediums selected.

Allison does not say that the mediums were expected to grain. He says that the medium tyre was faster if you can avoid the graining that in free practice everyone experienced. And he said that it was right on the edge of the graining being possible so they weren't sure if it would happen. In the end, only piastri really suffered with the graining in the Grand Prix majorly so the medium tyre probably was the quicker of the two.

I liked their strategy. It was proactive. With Lewis they gambled on the slicks working earlier than expected, and with George they hoped the mediums would grain. They tried two different things to win which is better than just going through the motions like Merc have been accused of previously

[ali623]

As fit Barcelona James pretty much saying we we will be fighting for 7th and 8th again.
Checo wont underpeform here at this normal track.

I think they'll do well again in Spain, not quite as strong as Canada though - simply because it's always been a good circuit for them. They had their best result of the season there last year with the double podium and have been on the podium every year of the hybrid era (except 2016 obviously).

[Formula 1 fan]

Will Mercedes bring some other upgrades for race in Spain beside new floor?

[ringo]

What's interesting about Allyson's answers is that they pit Lewis first for the girst safety car, but gave him the less durable tyre to run with to the end. George pit second for the harder tyre which admittedly by Allyson was the best strategy to try to win. The mediums were expected to grain and fall off like what happened to Piastri. Then why didnt they put Lewis on the hard tyre at the first stop?

Lewis pitted much earlier than other frontrunners and gambled on the slicks being quick earlier than they were. The mediums have far better warmup and this makes a large difference in mixed conditions. Considering Lewis went out on a wetter track, warmup was deemed more important and mediums selected.

Allison does not say that the mediums were expected to grain. He says that the medium tyre was faster if you can avoid the graining that in free practice everyone experienced. And he said that it was right on the edge of the graining being possible so they weren't sure if it would happen. In the end, only piastri really suffered with the graining in the Grand Prix majorly so the medium tyre probably was the quicker of the two.

I liked their strategy. It was proactive. With Lewis they gambled on the slicks working earlier than expected, and with George they hoped the mediums would grain. They tried two different things to win which is better than just going through the motions like Merc have been accused of previously

The flaw in the theory of quicker warm up, is that if you pit earlier and that tyre was not expected to do the race distance, then a second pit stop would have been expected for Lewis. That's 20s more to the time, compared to another warm up lap.
So again, Mercedes had a blunder there.

[Cs98]

What's interesting about Allyson's answers is that they pit Lewis first for the girst safety car, but gave him the less durable tyre to run with to the end. George pit second for the harder tyre which admittedly by Allyson was the best strategy to try to win. The mediums were expected to grain and fall off like what happened to Piastri. Then why didnt they put Lewis on the hard tyre at the first stop?

Lewis pitted much earlier than other frontrunners and gambled on the slicks being quick earlier than they were. The mediums have far better warmup and this makes a large difference in mixed conditions. Considering Lewis went out on a wetter track, warmup was deemed more important and mediums selected.

Allison does not say that the mediums were expected to grain. He says that the medium tyre was faster if you can avoid the graining that in free practice everyone experienced. And he said that it was right on the edge of the graining being possible so they weren't sure if it would happen. In the end, only piastri really suffered with the graining in the Grand Prix majorly so the medium tyre probably was the quicker of the two.

I liked their strategy. It was proactive. With Lewis they gambled on the slicks working earlier than expected, and with George they hoped the mediums would grain. They tried two different things to win which is better than just going through the motions like Merc have been accused of previously

The flaw in the theory of quicker warm up, is that if you pit earlier and that tyre was not expected to do the race distance, then a second pit stop would have been expected for Lewis. That's 20s more to the time, compared to another warm up lap.
So again, Mercedes had a blunder there.

The medium tyre made it to the end just fine for everyone else. Unless you are claiming Lewis is rougher on his tyres I see no reason why it would have been different for him. In fact, didn't he say after the race he wished they had kept him out on the medium? Funny thing to say if you weren't going to make it to the end. No, Merc got it right and the medium made sense because he was behind the others and wanted to try the undercut.

[Matt2725]

What's interesting about Allyson's answers is that they pit Lewis first for the girst safety car, but gave him the less durable tyre to run with to the end. George pit second for the harder tyre which admittedly by Allyson was the best strategy to try to win. The mediums were expected to grain and fall off like what happened to Piastri. Then why didnt they put Lewis on the hard tyre at the first stop?

Lewis pitted much earlier than other frontrunners and gambled on the slicks being quick earlier than they were. The mediums have far better warmup and this makes a large difference in mixed conditions. Considering Lewis went out on a wetter track, warmup was deemed more important and mediums selected.

Allison does not say that the mediums were expected to grain. He says that the medium tyre was faster if you can avoid the graining that in free practice everyone experienced. And he said that it was right on the edge of the graining being possible so they weren't sure if it would happen. In the end, only piastri really suffered with the graining in the Grand Prix majorly so the medium tyre probably was the quicker of the two.

I liked their strategy. It was proactive. With Lewis they gambled on the slicks working earlier than expected, and with George they hoped the mediums would grain. They tried two different things to win which is better than just going through the motions like Merc have been accused of previously

Worth noting, Lewis made it clear in the car he didn't want hards. Bono made a comment about Gasly being slow on hards still, and Lewis came back with "because the hards are ---" or something like that.

[ringo]

Lewis pitted much earlier than other frontrunners and gambled on the slicks being quick earlier than they were. The mediums have far better warmup and this makes a large difference in mixed conditions. Considering Lewis went out on a wetter track, warmup was deemed more important and mediums selected.

Allison does not say that the mediums were expected to grain. He says that the medium tyre was faster if you can avoid the graining that in free practice everyone experienced. And he said that it was right on the edge of the graining being possible so they weren't sure if it would happen. In the end, only piastri really suffered with the graining in the Grand Prix majorly so the medium tyre probably was the quicker of the two.

I liked their strategy. It was proactive. With Lewis they gambled on the slicks working earlier than expected, and with George they hoped the mediums would grain. They tried two different things to win which is better than just going through the motions like Merc have been accused of previously

The flaw in the theory of quicker warm up, is that if you pit earlier and that tyre was not expected to do the race distance, then a second pit stop would have been expected for Lewis. That's 20s more to the time, compared to another warm up lap.
So again, Mercedes had a blunder there.

The medium tyre made it to the end just fine for everyone else. Unless you are claiming Lewis is rougher on his tyres I see no reason why it would have been different for him. In fact, didn't he say after the race he wished they had kept him out on the medium? Funny thing to say if you weren't going to make it to the end. No, Merc got it right and the medium made sense because he was behind the others and wanted to try the undercut.

Remember Lewis was at the back of the front runners. He pit first and would invariably have to drive harder to catch that leading pack. The tyres would have never made it. Remember safety cars do allow rest, cool down and eats up some of the laps.
Ultimate the same hard tyre reasons applied to Lewis as it did George. It was the best tyre for that first pitstop.
Both George and Lewis should have been on the optimum strategy. Lewis was place on the suboptimum as a gable. A gamble for who knows what. It would have never resulted in a gain of places.

[chrisc90]

[Just_a_fan]

Oh, the irony of Red Bull complaining about a competitor's front wing flex.

[Cs98]

For Toto I believe this is when we say "what goes around comes around". Let's see if the FIA are as attentive to this as they were when Merc complained about RB and AMR.

[Formula 1 fan]

What will happen now, will Mercedes need to change front wing or not?

[Cs98]

What will happen now, will Mercedes need to change front wing or not?

Depends on the thickness of the envelope Toto is willing to slide under the door to the official in charge at the FIA.

Their wing flexes more than it used to, will it be enough to convince the FIA? Who knows.