2023 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[chrisc90]

I thought they had brought some upgrades to address the balance issues throughout the season?

RE. the concept, its not massively differing to the others now. Before when it was Zero-pod you could argue the concept was different, not they have a side pod and undercut so its somewhat falling in line with the others now.

[Spoutnik]

https://twitter.com/fiagirly/status/170 ... mESrA&s=19

Here is the full interview non-geoblocked. He says some really interesting things in this interview IMO. Recommend listening

They shoud listen to this young rookie, he's saying interesting thing

[Luscion]

The car is super draggy, now sucks in high speed corners when it was the opposite before they brought the front wing to help with slow speed cornering, no rear downforce and their race pace sims aren't that good either, pain.

[Spoutnik]

It's shameful to be +1s behind Verstappen, especially on such a short track almost 2 years into those regulations
Lewis is right to say it's "worrying for us as a team"

https://x.com/wearetherace/status/17055 ... 01411?s=20

[chrisc90]

Bigger gap than last year aswell.

The car does work, at some tracks, and is very competitive. Can probably expect it to have a good second half of the race tomorrow aswell since the car seems to work a lot better once some of the fuel has burnt off. Almost seems like too much fuel its not the best, too little its not the best but midway to 1/4 tank left it really picks up its pace.

I can honestly see them coming out with a 'RB replica/concept' for next season, but there's going to be a long way to go for them to fully understand given some teams are 1 year ahead and some 2 years ahead at least. It's a big call for Lewis to say they need to go down that route, especially since he probably doesn't see all the data the development teams do in the factory. it would also be heavily reliant of the CFD models and simulations correlating nicely.
Im still surprised they havent brought a decent floor upgrade yet (from memory). It seems to be one of the key focus areas for a lot of teams at the minute.

[DGP123]

Im still surprised they havent brought a decent floor upgrade yet (from memory). It seems to be one of the key focus areas for a lot of teams at the minute.

Rumoured for COTA. If not, everything just focused on the W15

[chrisc90]

Im still surprised they havent brought a decent floor upgrade yet (from memory). It seems to be one of the key focus areas for a lot of teams at the minute.

Rumoured for COTA. If not, everything just focused on the W15

Didnt Toto or someone say that focus was fully on the W15 now and there was no more runs being done with the W14?

[organic]

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/merce ... /10524315/

Interview with shovlin from Japan about w14 and about w15 development

[AR3-GP]

https://twitter.com/fiagirly/status/170 ... mESrA&s=19

Here is the full interview non-geoblocked. He says some really interesting things in this interview IMO. Recommend listening

Its interesting that Hamilton states certain things as if they are still open questions. I can't tell if he's saying they have not still, and that they should....or that they already have. I've always held the impression that W15 will not look anything like the MClaren or the RB and what Hamilton says more recently suggest to me that is correct, but he would still like it to change to RB/MClaren concept.

[Just_a_fan]

Im still surprised they havent brought a decent floor upgrade yet (from memory). It seems to be one of the key focus areas for a lot of teams at the minute.

Rumoured for COTA. If not, everything just focused on the W15

Didnt Toto or someone say that focus was fully on the W15 now and there was no more runs being done with the W14?

Yes, but things are still going through the build stages for W14 upgrades. The design stage is fully W15.

[ringo]

Hamilton 3 tenths ahead of Russell

all week you get the Hamilton is crap on a Saturday, and he goes and easily beats Russell in Q2 & Q3. Unfortunately for Merc, there’s nothing remotely special about George

As for tomorrow, a top 5 finish would be a miracle.

To be fair to george his runs were at different times. Maybe his choice but Lewis did his runs when the track was more ramped up. So theyre closer than the 3 tenths. The other theory is Lewis is hiding his hand like he did when paired with Rosberg.

[Luscion]

Im still surprised they havent brought a decent floor upgrade yet (from memory). It seems to be one of the key focus areas for a lot of teams at the minute.

Rumoured for COTA. If not, everything just focused on the W15

Didnt Toto or someone say that focus was fully on the W15 now and there was no more runs being done with the W14?

Yes, the wind tunnel has been closed for the W14 for a while now but Toto said they've had upgrades already built and ones in production that are yet to come to the car.

[Luscion]

[ringo]

Bigger gap than last year aswell.

The car does work, at some tracks, and is very competitive. Can probably expect it to have a good second half of the race tomorrow aswell since the car seems to work a lot better once some of the fuel has burnt off. Almost seems like too much fuel its not the best, too little its not the best but midway to 1/4 tank left it really picks up its pace.

I can honestly see them coming out with a 'RB replica/concept' for next season, but there's going to be a long way to go for them to fully understand given some teams are 1 year ahead and some 2 years ahead at least. It's a big call for Lewis to say they need to go down that route, especially since he probably doesn't see all the data the development teams do in the factory. it would also be heavily reliant of the CFD models and simulations correlating nicely.
Im still surprised they havent brought a decent floor upgrade yet (from memory). It seems to be one of the key focus areas for a lot of teams at the minute.

Part of the concept is the scalloped fuel tanks to fit the radiator and intercooler to narrow the car. That results in an elongated fuel tank and the cockpit being forward.
Because the wider sidepods are now the best way to go, Mercedes no longer need to tuck its coolers in that space where fuel should be. They can put the coolers to the side and bring back the fuel tank and driver towards the cog and this will also allow the aerodynamic centre to come back as well. Mercedes concept did nit change with the monaco upgrade, that was more like putting lipstick on a pig. The underlying car was the same with the T shaped monocoque.

[denyall]

The package for zero pods forces some serious trade offs no matter what bodywork they put on. I'm surprised people forget this week to week and expect a miracle from Merc. End of season convergence was always going to push Merc further down the grid. There is only so much you can do.

They spent millions on the cooling package for zero pods... shame it didn't work out.