2018 Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team

[PhillipM]

Looks like the Ferrari is actually gaining a bit midway down the straights.
The Merc is incredible on the brakes though.

[muramasa]

Hamilton gaining ALL the time from the corners. Ferrari is lacking downforce, NOT engine power.

Been so for years now yet there are still some people claiming as if Merc performance is all or largely down to PU superiority. Of course engine is part of it, and so is vehicle dynamics like suspension, so is aero, so is driver. Last year it just took them few months to calibrate and optimize things fully. I saw f1 at Suzuka Esses last sev years and Merc is just monster, taking visibly different line to others and its stability and sharpness of direction change is mad. Well visible on TV, but much more so in person. Their turning radius is more compact than any others, finishing the turn and placing the car in a direction towards the next corner at a point quite earlier than any others even Fer and RBR. Slower cars dive too deep, late to make and complete the turn and press on pedal, unable to give the car speed and ride on top of it, and it's a vicious cycle of this at sections like Suzuka S. Merc has been in different league. Absolute time difference by it in mere one corner should not be visually discernible esp in person because it must be only 0.1s or even less in one corner, but car's motion behavior and the line it takes to make that happen are so visibly different that it's absolutely astonishing. 2017 wider car made F1 in general even more awesome in Suzuka S and kinds of sections like that, but even among them the Merc was different and totally jaw dropping.

[Manoah2u]

I think that's exactly what Dennis for example was talking about 'needing' to be a works team and not a 'customer'.

Like such, the complete package is going to make sense, that includes an engine that has been fine-tuned and fully designed and incorporated to your desired package. Both Force India and Williams have the Merc engine but are nowhere near the level of Merc, nor Ferrari, etc. And sure, their budget is less and operated differently, but it shows
that having a powerful engine itself isn't enough. In other words, even if Mclaren would have that Mercedes engine, they could still be rather down. At that, the same would go for RedBull. It's all pretty fun and games that they claim that if they had the Merc engine, they would disappear in the distance, but it's easy to say one thing, and hard to actually live by it.

Point being, the engine itself isn't the magic bullet. The total package is, and Mercedes clearly has an insanely good package, and i'm confident that is definately because the entire car is tailored fit. and thus, if you are a customer, you're never going to hit that sweet spot.

I do believe that the Mercedes still is rather a diva. Bottas 'error on the grass offcourse was the source of the crash, but the car really just 'lost it' - not much different in my opinion to Lewis in Brazil 2017.

BUT, Ferrari does look rather close still though. Curious to see the race. 2017, Mercedes also had a pretty big advantage due to 'qually mode' and having 'something' to put it during Q, but in the race, it was much harder for them. it's gonna be pretty exciting i think!

[Raleigh]

Williams beat Ferrari in 2014 and Red Bull in 2015 (with a car that had almost no in-season development) on less than half the budget of either, you can do some impressive things as a customer of the top engine manufacturer.

Indeed, excluding Manor in 2016 no Mercedes customer in the V6 era has been beaten by any team other than the current top 3. 3rd/5th/6th in 2014, 3rd/5th/6th in 2015, 4th/5th in 2016, 4th/5th in 2017, though I imagine that streak will probably end in 2018.

Still, it's not likely you could beat Mercedes themselves as a customer and Mclaren's ambition is such that they could not accept that position.

[De Jokke]

How Lucky seb was today. Poor Lewis, did everything he could but the circuit wasn't allowing it (ask Ricciardo vs kimi)

But we've got a great car. We'll bounce back!

Was Bottas sleeping this weekend, what a dreadful weekend he had. Jeez

[GPR-A duplicate2]

And I don't understand the need for Mercedes to always run a tiny gap with the cars behind them. From what I could see Lewis could extend his gap at will.

Mental scars (China, Russia and of all, Malaysia) of 2016, I guess.

No to mention if they are out front leading by 20 seconds people complain like children that they are destroying the sport.

Expressing my thoughts here as this seemed like the appropriate thread.

I seriously don't understand, what is the solution to break the Mercedes' dominance. People fail to understand that, their strength is not engine! It's the depth in technical ranks and the culture of high performance (you can read various statements by Toto about team strength) that they have managed to install in their employees. Since 2015, every time they face a problem, they come back with a solution and the problem hardly ever bothers them again and that speaks volumes about the way they go about identifying the root cause and fixing it. Even if the FIA resets the rules (PU and/or Chassis) for next year, I bet it would be Mercedes who would come back with another stronger package. They only struggled early last season, because of the FIA's late directive on Trick suspension that came at a time when manufacturing was under process. It took them a while, but eventually they came back with solutions that didn't derailed their season.

While the whole world was criticizing the longer wheel base, they stuck to it (I was right in suspecting that and was willing to bet on it, late last season) and have come back with an even stronger package, whereas Ferrari are now chasing the longer wheel base! Speaks volumes about Mercedes designers' commitment to their philosophy. People thought it was oil burning trick, but that doesn't seem to have hurt their new engine!

Toto is a very smart guy and has arrested his staff with a very lengthy gardening leaves, because he knows, it's not the rules, cars and the engines that are his asset!

[digitalrurouni]

How Lucky seb was today. Poor Lewis, did everything he could but the circuit wasn't allowing it (ask Ricciardo vs kimi)

But we've got a great car. We'll bounce back!

Was Bottas sleeping this weekend, what a dreadful weekend he had. Jeez

Which inevitably brings home the point when people say "Hamilton is dominant and winning WC's because of his car ONLY. Put any other driver on the grid and they would win as well!" That is so not the case with Bottas. He seems to be under pressure to perform and is buckling. I think Bottas is a good driver but not an outstanding one. I see Danny Ric joining the Mercedes team next year and Bottas being dropped and he will go back to Williams.

[Sieper]

This is exactly the pressure Bottas is under, and for sure, he has put himself into an iron fist grip of pressure for the whole season now already. I don't disagree with you. Are there people really sayin Hammy will only win because of the car, that seems like a hater remark, offcourse he has the best car (or at least near to the best) but that is because he is also the best (or at least near to the best) driver.

[toraabe]

Looks like the Ferrari is actually gaining a bit midway down the straights.
The Merc is incredible on the brakes though.

Maybe, but the quicker you are reaching a certain target speed you will be faster although your top speed is lower due to the time spent at the straight.

[Big Tea]

How Lucky seb was today. Poor Lewis, did everything he could but the circuit wasn't allowing it (ask Ricciardo vs kimi)

But we've got a great car. We'll bounce back!

Was Bottas sleeping this weekend, what a dreadful weekend he had. Jeez

Which inevitably brings home the point when people say "Hamilton is dominant and winning WC's because of his car ONLY. Put any other driver on the grid and they would win as well!" That is so not the case with Bottas. He seems to be under pressure to perform and is buckling. I think Bottas is a good driver but not an outstanding one. I see Danny Ric joining the Mercedes team next year and Bottas being dropped and he will go back to Williams.

Also high lights how difficult it is to knock a leading car off its perch. If Ferrari was the better qualifier they could well be the dominant team. The whole formula now runs by get infront and stay there

[dans79]

Also high lights how difficult it is to knock a leading car off its perch. If Ferrari was the better qualifier they could well be the dominant team. The whole formula now runs by get infront and stay there

That has a lot more to do with the fact that a lot of tracks where not designed with today's cars in mind.

[Big Tea]

Also high lights how difficult it is to knock a leading car off its perch. If Ferrari was the better qualifier they could well be the dominant team. The whole formula now runs by get infront and stay there

That has a lot more to do with the fact that a lot of tracks where not designed with today's cars in mind.

But the tracks were designed before the cars.

[digitalrurouni]

Also high lights how difficult it is to knock a leading car off its perch. If Ferrari was the better qualifier they could well be the dominant team. The whole formula now runs by get infront and stay there

That has a lot more to do with the fact that a lot of tracks where not designed with today's cars in mind.

But the tracks were designed before the cars.

Have to agree. We are not just talking about the Tilkedromes in general or Monaco. But to be fair the Australian GP has never been a nail biter of a GP.

[dans79]

Also high lights how difficult it is to knock a leading car off its perch. If Ferrari was the better qualifier they could well be the dominant team. The whole formula now runs by get infront and stay there

That has a lot more to do with the fact that a lot of tracks where not designed with today's cars in mind.

But the tracks were designed before the cars.

That's the point, none of the tracks have been adapted/updated to make overtakes more probable. The cars have been down-force constrained for well over two decades now, yet they still race around tracks that are designed for cars that where limited by mechanical grip.

[Big Tea]

That has a lot more to do with the fact that a lot of tracks where not designed with today's cars in mind.

But the tracks were designed before the cars.

That's the point, none of the tracks have been adapted/updated to make overtakes more probable. The cars have been down-force constrained for well over two decades now, yet they still race around tracks that are designed for cars that where limited by mechanical grip.

So is this not a problem with the cars rather than the track? If you live on a farm you get a 4X4 not a Ferrari and it does the job you want.