2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

[gearboxtrouble]

Toto Wolff on blue flags in Hungary: "The problem is that some engineers on the pit wall are absolute Teletubbies and would rather stare up at the sky than tell their drivers that there’s a train of leading drivers coming from behind and that they’re fighting for positions."

Quote of the weekend.

I wonder if he confused Muppets and Teletubbies lol.

[zibby43]

Toto Wolff on blue flags in Hungary: "The problem is that some engineers on the pit wall are absolute Teletubbies and would rather stare up at the sky than tell their drivers that there’s a train of leading drivers coming from behind and that they’re fighting for positions."

Quote of the weekend.

I wonder if he confused Muppets and Teletubbies lol.

I think he may have nailed it with Teletubbies because in the interview, he said something to the effect of, and I'm paraphrasing, "mute like Teletubbies." I know what a Teletubby is but I have never seen it so if they're not mute, then maybe that wasn't the proper comparison lol.

[MB_Racer]

Ferrari really threw us a lifeline this weekend. Kimi extended his lead in the WDC and basically kept the WCC frozen in place.

Damage limitation heading into the summer rather than limping into the summer. Team should be very motivated to come back strong after the break.

Exactly! Well summed up.

Great job by Kimi, and only one point lost to Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.

That’s excellent damage limitation considering the horrible grid position!

[Waz]

Kimi is driving really maturely in the last 2 races. He's lost the teen angst from earlier in the year when he wasn't in the lead.

[clownfish]

edited: Antonelli explained what happened to Russell. The battery was topped up too much which meant the turbo could no longer build boost (it needs to be able to load the engine against the MGUK in order to build boost). Without boost, the car had no power and went to anti-stall when the dropped the clutch.

Here's what George said

"I was on the throttle holding the revs, and then all of a sudden, about four seconds before the lights went out, the engine just started revving all over the place," Russell said. "I was reacting with my throttle, and it was doing nothing. So, the engine wasn't reacting to the throttle."

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/49 ... ungaroring

Plausible it could have been caused by the ers failing to provide the expected load.

[Lasssept]

[AR3-GP]

edited: Antonelli explained what happened to Russell. The battery was topped up too much which meant the turbo could no longer build boost (it needs to be able to load the engine against the MGUK in order to build boost). Without boost, the car had no power and went to anti-stall when the dropped the clutch.

Here's what George said

"I was on the throttle holding the revs, and then all of a sudden, about four seconds before the lights went out, the engine just started revving all over the place," Russell said. "I was reacting with my throttle, and it was doing nothing. So, the engine wasn't reacting to the throttle."

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/49 ... ungaroring

Plausible it could have been caused by the ers failing to provide the expected load.

I agree I think there is a connection between the ERS no longer charging, and the revs rising. Motorsport.com posted some telemetry. Antonelli seemed to know right away what it was, so it's likely that they have experienced this before on the Merc PU.

[Farnborough]

edited: Antonelli explained what happened to Russell. The battery was topped up too much which meant the turbo could no longer build boost (it needs to be able to load the engine against the MGUK in order to build boost). Without boost, the car had no power and went to anti-stall when the dropped the clutch.

Here's what George said

"I was on the throttle holding the revs, and then all of a sudden, about four seconds before the lights went out, the engine just started revving all over the place," Russell said. "I was reacting with my throttle, and it was doing nothing. So, the engine wasn't reacting to the throttle."

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/49 ... ungaroring

Plausible it could have been caused by the ers failing to provide the expected load.

I agree I think there is a connection between the ERS no longer charging, and the revs rising. Motorsport.com posted some telemetry. Antonelli seemed to know right away what it was, so it's likely that they have experienced this before on the Merc PU.


https://i.redd.it/rqz9wpls9rfh1.png

If the ERS has to drop loading, because its full (Antonelli word was "stack" full, I thought) then ICE will show that to GR in feel. He responded by taking foot off throttle, boost from Turbo was, correctly, quenched. Lights out and GR releases clutch against expected ICE under boost load, to find it's not available. Traction then triggers anti stall, by pulling clutch to make available "go again" then you could see how long the turbo lag took to reduce as everyone keeps sweeping by GR.

Looks like GR got the final approach wrong, that to overfill the battery prior to start routine demand that's used to build boost.

Don't feel there's mystery "control" but circumstances tripped over by driver.

[AR3-GP]

Here's what George said

"I was on the throttle holding the revs, and then all of a sudden, about four seconds before the lights went out, the engine just started revving all over the place," Russell said. "I was reacting with my throttle, and it was doing nothing. So, the engine wasn't reacting to the throttle."

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/49 ... ungaroring

Plausible it could have been caused by the ers failing to provide the expected load.

I agree I think there is a connection between the ERS no longer charging, and the revs rising. Motorsport.com posted some telemetry. Antonelli seemed to know right away what it was, so it's likely that they have experienced this before on the Merc PU.


https://i.redd.it/rqz9wpls9rfh1.png

If the ERS has to drop loading, because its full (Antonelli word was "stack" full, I thought) then ICE will show that to GR in feel. He responded by taking foot off throttle, boost from Turbo was, correctly, quenched. Lights out and GR releases clutch against expected ICE under boost load, to find it's not available. Traction then triggers anti stall, by pulling clutch to make available "go again" then you could see how long the turbo lag took to reduce as everyone keeps sweeping by GR.

Looks like GR got the final approach wrong, that to overfill the battery prior to start routine demand that's used to build boost.

Don't feel there's mystery "control" but circumstances tripped over by driver.

On the surface yes it would seem that the battery pack (aka Energy Store/ES) became full (for some reason). Whether that's on the driver or not is hard to say with these PUs. If he began the pre-start procedure too early, then yes that would be his fault, but if there was software issue in the formation lap then it might not be.

[Farnborough]

I can see that, and discussion about procedure and effectiveness of that against resources during pre start routine valid.

But don't see conspiracy in what happened with throttle as load come off in final seconds before launch. Looks like the result was entirely logical once the energy store was maxed out, at which point it could no longer reasonably be used as brake to run turbo boost accumulation against.

[Brahmal]

Looks like the result was entirely logical once the energy store was maxed out, at which point it could no longer reasonably be used as brake to run turbo boost accumulation against.

I am not an electrical engineer, but there must be some way to safely discharge that excess energy instead of just shutting down the generator side, no? Putting a tesla coil on top of the camera pylon comes to mind, and yes I know that is a very dumb idea but you get my drift.

[Farnborough]

Looks like the result was entirely logical once the energy store was maxed out, at which point it could no longer reasonably be used as brake to run turbo boost accumulation against.

I am not an electrical engineer, but there must be some way to safely discharge that excess energy instead of just shutting down the generator side, no? Putting a tesla coil on top of the camera pylon comes to mind, and yes I know that is a very dumb idea but you get my drift.

Me neither, but anything to dissipate the energy would just add another thing to this rules farce built around that notional 50% dream.

There was obviously good facility in last reg set either MGU-K that could spin turbine on demand for just situation like this, but well recorded politics with new entrants nixed that effective device.

Reading between lines, along with Antonelli confirmation, GR should have arrived with planned capacity to accommodate this routine, but somehow didn't.

A dangerous situation also for GR and following drivers. Not really acceptable by most measures, considering warnings were given by seasoned key participants prior to this season start. It's really just a mess, isn't it.

They've even given allowance (i think I understand that correctly) to use E bellow the normal deployment threshold in trying to mitigate this danger. Just more rules on top of more rules that shouldn't be needed.