2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[SiLo]

Was his pace advantage on hards as big as Max' advantage on the mediums? (i don't believe it was)
Max could easily stick to his gearbox throughout the entire first stint, without going a bit longer Lewis could have gone in the very next lap which would have put him close to Max right away (without the need to close the gap) and IF he could have stuck to him for the entire stint maybe, just maybe, he could have gone for the undercut for the second stop himself - but that ignores potential issues in clearing the traffic and what role Perez might have played.

I think this was Mercedes other play they could have made. If you know it's a two stop race and you get jumped at the first stop, then you can try and do the same at the second stop.

[RZS10]

He basically used the 15 laps of the middle stint until Max pitted to close the gap from 6.7s to 3.3s (~0.23s/lap) which was never close enough to try an undercut, so they were forced to go long in order to create the tyre offset, pitting the lap after Max would have put him into the undercut window right away without the need to catch up ... in the end Max' last stint 'just' had to be three laps longer than Lewis' middle stint, only with a lighter car, so the chance of him hitting the cliff was never all that high to begin with imho.
There were other drivers who did similarly long or even longer stints than Max and did not really fall off (Latifi 4 laps longer, Sainz the same, Perez, RIC, Norris one lap shorter) and they did not even have the chance to baby them on the first few laps.

This year it seems like they're playing it safe strategy wise despite not being in the position to do so.

[Just_a_fan]

Hamilton being a selfish playboy prat yet again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-59088016

Oh, maybe not.

Trying to inspire kids to believe they can be what they want to be.

[Hammerfist]

Was his pace advantage on hards as big as Max' advantage on the mediums? (i don't believe it was)
Max could easily stick to his gearbox throughout the entire first stint, without going a bit longer Lewis could have gone in the very next lap which would have put him close to Max right away (without the need to close the gap) and IF he could have stuck to him for the entire stint maybe, just maybe, he could have gone for the undercut for the second stop himself - but that ignores potential issues in clearing the traffic and what role Perez might have played.

I think this was Mercedes other play they could have made. If you know it's a two stop race and you get jumped at the first stop, then you can try and do the same at the second stop.

Problem is that Lewis lost a lot of ground on the medium tire stint. max was always going to have a buffer, and even if Lewis pitted right after him, he likely would not have been closer than 3-4 secs behind. And Redbull was always going to pit when/if Lewis was in undercut range.

Mercedes lost this race because they were too slow on the Medium tire.

[ringo]

Could the car work well in Mexico?
I think they can win there. If the track is not hard on the rear end, and mercedes figure out a work around for the impact the high altitude has on their engine, then they have a chance.

[mstar]

Hamilton being a selfish playboy prat yet again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-59088016

Oh, maybe not.

Trying to inspire kids to believe they can be what they want to be.

yes, i wish other drivers do the same other than sitting home and playing driver sims like norris, charles, max etc

[PlatinumZealot]

i think Lewis and Vettel have a thing for donning disguises! This is the second or third "old man Lewis" activity. He hid one at McLaren and I think another one before this..... He does a lot a work outside F1 and its sad that he get criticized when he does. Jeremy Clarkson again sticking in some knives this week.

[flmkane]

Hamilton being a selfish playboy prat yet again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-59088016

Oh, maybe not.

Trying to inspire kids to believe they can be what they want to be.

Man I still wanna be Adrian Newey

[e30ernest]

I was just listening to the Beyond The Grid podcast interview of Jean Vergne and he talks about why Lewis didn't luck out in getting the best car.

He told a story about how he spoke with Lewis while they were at India in 2012 and he asked Lewis why he was leaving McLaren (then one of the best teams in the grid) for a team that wasn't even close to winning any race. Lewis told Vergne that if he were to "beat Sebastian", he had to leave and build his own team around him.

Vergne said that conversation stuck with him and that because of that, he truly believed that the success of the Mercedes team and Lewis' record breaking run is all due to both the team's organizational greatness, and Lewis' long-term vision of what success would be like and how to achieve it. He added that while many drivers have talent and speed, not many have the kind of vision that Lewis had.

With all of Lewis' foundation, it looks like he's going after a new long-term goal, something he'll pursue after F1. For Rosberg for example it was in Green technologies, Lewis appears to be going after both Green tech and philanthropy.

[Just_a_fan]

I was just listening to the Beyond The Grid podcast interview of Jean Vergne and he talks about why Lewis didn't luck out in getting the best car.
[...]

That's not going to go down well with the "he's only winning because of the best car" and "the car was developed by Schumacher, not Hamilton" brigades...

[TimW]

I was just listening to the Beyond The Grid podcast interview of Jean Vergne and he talks about why Lewis didn't luck out in getting the best car.
[...]

That's not going to go down well with the "he's only winning because of the best car" and "the car was developed by Schumacher, not Hamilton" brigades...

Hamilton just saw that Mercedes with their ambition, organisation and money was the team most likely to give him the best car on the grid in the long run, while Mercedes saw that Lewis was the driver most likely to give then world championships. And they were both correct...

[Ryar]

I was just listening to the Beyond The Grid podcast interview of Jean Vergne and he talks about why Lewis didn't luck out in getting the best car.
[...]

That's not going to go down well with the "he's only winning because of the best car" and "the car was developed by Schumacher, not Hamilton" brigades...

I wonder what insider knowledge JV has or what qualification he has, more than anyone on this forum, to comment on that topic! I thought he was from Red Bull stable.

[Big Tea]

I was just listening to the Beyond The Grid podcast interview of Jean Vergne and he talks about why Lewis didn't luck out in getting the best car.

He told a story about how he spoke with Lewis while they were at India in 2012 and he asked Lewis why he was leaving McLaren (then one of the best teams in the grid) for a team that wasn't even close to winning any race. Lewis told Vergne that if he were to "beat Sebastian", he had to leave and build his own team around him.

Vergne said that conversation stuck with him and that because of that, he truly believed that the success of the Mercedes team and Lewis' record breaking run is all due to both the team's organizational greatness, and Lewis' long-term vision of what success would be like and how to achieve it. He added that while many drivers have talent and speed, not many have the kind of vision that Lewis had.

With all of Lewis' foundation, it looks like he's going after a new long-term goal, something he'll pursue after F1. For Rosberg for example it was in Green technologies, Lewis appears to be going after both Green tech and philanthropy.

I'm sure he would have included the 'Niki factor' in his calculations, and I feel equally as sure the missing Niki factor is costing them this year. Not a quantifiable factor, but there is 'something' missing

[NathanOlder]

I was just listening to the Beyond The Grid podcast interview of Jean Vergne and he talks about why Lewis didn't luck out in getting the best car.
[...]

That's not going to go down well with the "he's only winning because of the best car" and "the car was developed by Schumacher, not Hamilton" brigades...

I wonder what insider knowledge JV has or what qualification he has, more than anyone on this forum, to comment on that topic! I thought he was from Red Bull stable.

What knowledge does he need ?

He said he spoke to Lewis face to face (2 years before Mercedes won any championship) and said that Lewis is crazy to leave Mclaren for Mercedes. Lewis replied with "I need to build a team around me to beat Sebastian"

Mclaren didn't want to build the team around 1 driver at the time.

So Lewis did what he said to JEV. Went to Mercedes , has built the team around himself, and has become the most successful driver the planet has ever seen.

So all JEV was saying was, it wasn't luck, Lewis went to a team and he had the same vision the team had, and everything worked out exctly how they planned it driver and team.

What knowledge does JEV need ?

[Just_a_fan]

I was just listening to the Beyond The Grid podcast interview of Jean Vergne and he talks about why Lewis didn't luck out in getting the best car.
[...]

That's not going to go down well with the "he's only winning because of the best car" and "the car was developed by Schumacher, not Hamilton" brigades...

I wonder what insider knowledge JV has or what qualification he has, more than anyone on this forum, to comment on that topic! I thought he was from Red Bull stable.

He spoke to Hamilton. It's in the quote.