2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

[Henri]

Different drivers prefer different car characteristics - hardly a shockingly original piece of journalism. One only has to look at the likes of Max and Lewis to see how a car not working as they like it to strips pace from them. Max complains about understeer because it doesn't give him the rotation he wants/uses at the point in the corner that gives him his pace. Lewis struggled with the tunnel cars because they were designed not to pitch under braking and Lewis uses weight transfer under braking and the resultant movement of the centre of pressure to rotate the car. When both drivers had cars that didn't give them what they want they lost time. George is now in that same situation with a car that doesn't reward his particular driving style. It's difficult for a driver to alter their inherent style - it's not the same as driving around an issue in a particular race, all drivers can do that - because it requires unlearning years of muscle memory.

Nah George being exposed as ge merchant.. kimi was being held back by ge n8w this is his true pace

[HungarianRacer]

With the Monaco GP weekend seeing special restrictions on the power units (increasingly restricted MGU-K deployment above 200km/h, meaning no variance in ERS strategies and battery state of charge not being an area of management), I thought it presented an unique opportunity to put Mercedes' alleged PU supremacy in context:

This is Antonelli's pole lap telemetry vs Hamilton's best Q3 lap's speed trace, not sure about you, but the acceleration curves on those long(ish) flatout sections (highlighted) look well on top of eachoter to me:



Now, let me bring up a free practice lap comparison from 2019 (HAM's Mercedes vs VET's Ferrari)... As you can see, Mercedes had their engines turned well down, curiously...:



WAIT, NEVERMIND, that's actually Hamilton's pole lap vs Vettel's best in Q3 ...

Now, Ferrari's horsepower advantage was said to be in the ~50-60bhp range at the time, with manufacturers reportedly just cracking the 1000bhp barrier (combined output)...

Consider that the combined output was alot lower at high speeds this year (due to the restrictions mentioned above).... Some of the Italian media is currently putting Ferrari's power deficit in the 40-45bhp ballpark, and they are adamant that The Prancing Horse is using Mercedes as their benchmark...

Make of this bundle of information what you will....

[Lasssept]