2025 Mercedes-AMG | Petronas F1 Team

[zibby43]

It was way too early to sound the death knell for Merc, particularly considering the Monaco outlier.

[Matt2725]

Early lap time indications look ok. Worth noting both Mercs had 22 (Rus) and 20 (Ant) laps on softs by the time they got off them. They used the same set of tyres for the quali sim and the race sim.

[Quantum]

Indeed. Looking at the lap times, they're looking pretty competitive on the long runs. Worth noting they haven't refueled as far as I can tell post fast laps, so they were carrying around a fair bit of fuel on that faster run if that is the case.
Based on team radio, Russell at least will have done around 24 laps on the softs by the end of his current stint. Looks more positive than 1 or 2 weeks ago at least for now.

24 laps and 1:13 dead is decent.

But, the pole time last year was 1:11.4.

By way of comparison to last year there was a 0.1 improvement in the pole time at Imola from 2024 to 2025 and 0.3 at Monaco. Not exactly correlative with differing compounds, set ups and conditions but it does lean to suggest there is good 1.5 seconds in the bag for the front runners.

For 24 laps, you're running around 45kg of "fat" at the very least.
With the penalty widely accepted to be 0.3 seconds per 10kg, you're looking at around a 1.35 second penalty.
Puts them around 1:11.650 with a lower engine mode.

All rudimentary but does indicate Merc are quick(er). If they can just make those rears last....

[Lasssept]

@a_prodanovic99


@F1BigData

[Matt2725]

Not bad considering they used the same tyres for quali and race sims.

[search]

Not bad considering they used the same tyres for quali and race sims.

everyone does, and Lawson was half a second faster towards the end of the stint.

[zibby43]

My biggest fear is they’re still cooking the rears.

[Lasssept]

@victorabadf1

[zibby43]

Fear realized lol

In the team media debrief, Shov really mailed it in. Did not seem optimistic at all.

[Matt2725]

You're looking at tyres after they've been heated with a heat gun and shaved down to check for wear and tread characteristics after the stint.

They didn't come off the car looking like that.

[SB15]

Fear realized lol

In the team media debrief, Shov really mailed it in. Did not seem optimistic at all.

Thankfully Allison is there. So he knows what to relay to the simulation team back at Brackley.

[SB15]

You're looking at tyres after they've been heated with a heat gun and shaved down to check for wear and tread characteristics after the stint.

They didn't come off the car looking like that.

correct

[Farnborough]

The "shaved" inspected tyres are McLaren items !

Those in first image all McL wheel covers.

An I missing something here ?

[Matt2725]

The "shaved" inspected tyres are McLaren items !

Those in first image all McL wheel covers.

An I missing something here ?

You know, I didn't even see that either when I saw the post. So as you say, I think we're missing something here.

It feels like we have a pessimistic poster going a bit overboard.

[Farnborough]

I think the team generally accept their own concerns about tyre life etc, but obviously here they are looking at their own stack as reference to intrinsic setup.

Of course, the McL examples would be interesting to all teams as they currently appear to be pinnacle of longer run tyre usage