2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[Marty_Y]

I feel I should qualify my statement from earlier, that it's still early in the game and although Mercedes managed to get P1 it doesn't mean they've turned the tables on Red Bull yet.
But it was good to see Bottas in P3 and tomorrow they're in good positions to fight for pole.
I'm still super happy with the results, it was a great team effort and a amazing performance from Lewis.

[mkay]

So the update clearly worked wonders. Much reduced wing didn't hurt cornering performance and straight line speed is on par with RB if not better. Hamilton should have been on pole by half a second but messed up in final corner, so actual gap to second is entirely unrepresentative. Easy cruise tomorrow and probably sunday as well.

I think he just killed the tires in the first 2 secros more than anything else!

Anyone can say that because everyone pushed as hard as they can trough the whole lap. Worst crutch I heard.

Track conditions were a huge variable, though. Track temps were down anywhere from 7C to 9C from FP1 - that's a huge delta.

I think that helped Merc keep the tyres in the window through the entire lap as they were losing as much as 4 tenths in S3 alone in FP1 (on a 8-9 tenth overall delta to RB).

[Tvetovnato]

I think he just killed the tires in the first 2 secros more than anything else!

Anyone can say that because everyone pushed as hard as they can trough the whole lap. Worst crutch I heard.

Track conditions were a huge variable, though. Track temps were down anywhere from 7C to 9C from FP1 - that's a huge delta.

I think that helped Merc keep the tyres in the window through the entire lap as they were losing as much as 4 tenths in S3 alone in FP1 (on a 8-9 tenth overall delta to RB).

Completely unrepresentative FP this time though, as teams were doing different programs, with Merc focusing more on the race.

Encouraging update though, bodes well. Especially since there was still quite a chunk of time left in the car.

[zibby43]

Anyone can say that because everyone pushed as hard as they can trough the whole lap. Worst crutch I heard.

Track conditions were a huge variable, though. Track temps were down anywhere from 7C to 9C from FP1 - that's a huge delta.

I think that helped Merc keep the tyres in the window through the entire lap as they were losing as much as 4 tenths in S3 alone in FP1 (on a 8-9 tenth overall delta to RB).

Completely unrepresentative FP this time though, as teams were doing different programs, with Merc focusing more on the race.

Encouraging update though, bodes well. Especially since there was still quite a chunk of time left in the car.

Agree. dans79 had a good post that pretty clearly demonstrated that Merc were running FP1-level PU modes and fuel loads in practice. That gap was wholly irrelevant.

That gap makes me more optimistic in retrospect, as it means Merc were confident enough to hide their pace and comfortably run their own program.

[mkay]

Track conditions were a huge variable, though. Track temps were down anywhere from 7C to 9C from FP1 - that's a huge delta.

I think that helped Merc keep the tyres in the window through the entire lap as they were losing as much as 4 tenths in S3 alone in FP1 (on a 8-9 tenth overall delta to RB).

Completely unrepresentative FP this time though, as teams were doing different programs, with Merc focusing more on the race.

Encouraging update though, bodes well. Especially since there was still quite a chunk of time left in the car.

Agree. dans79 had a good post that pretty clearly demonstrated that Merc were running FP1-level PU modes and fuel loads in practice. That gap was wholly irrelevant.

That gap makes me more optimistic in retrospect, as it means Merc were confident enough to hide their pace and comfortably run their own program.

I’m still reluctant to get carried away. Sector 3 is mostly about the last two corners and Stowe to some extent. PU mode delta shouldn’t create a 4 tenth gap, considering Merc was matching RB in S1 and only losing 3 tenths in S2.

Tomorrow’s sprint race and Sunday’s GP will be held under warmer conditions and Marko intimated that their car was probably better suited for those.

[zibby43]

Completely unrepresentative FP this time though, as teams were doing different programs, with Merc focusing more on the race.

Encouraging update though, bodes well. Especially since there was still quite a chunk of time left in the car.

Agree. dans79 had a good post that pretty clearly demonstrated that Merc were running FP1-level PU modes and fuel loads in practice. That gap was wholly irrelevant.

That gap makes me more optimistic in retrospect, as it means Merc were confident enough to hide their pace and comfortably run their own program.

I’m still reluctant to get carried away. Sector 3 is mostly about the last two corners and Stowe to some extent. PU mode delta shouldn’t create a 4 tenth gap, considering Merc was matching RB in S1 and only losing 3 tenths in S2.

Tomorrow’s sprint race and Sunday’s GP will be held under warmer conditions and Marko intimated that their car was probably better suited for those.

Arguably the W12’s strongest attribute is managing thermal degradation of the tires, especially in warm conditions. Barcelona was a scorcher.

Merc is the only team to have sent both drivers out to do full sprint race sims in practice. Not only is that an incredibly useful set of data, but that just exudes confidence.

I think the W12 enjoys the new construction rear tires, and the upgrades have clearly significantly boosted underfloor and diffuser performance enough to finally run skinny rear wings and no t-wings.

Looks like it’s pulling away on the straights:

[NathanOlder]

So looking at the new Mercedes updates, we have reasons to be optimistic (as Merc fans)

1. A fair few updates added to the car, and only 1 hour to set the car up. To me that means there is much less chance they dialed the car in as well as the other teams who brought less updates. So in theory the potenital of the W12 is now higher than most of the cars in their current forms.

2. The tyre pressures are sky high (25 fronts, 23 rears) and this has historically hurt Mercedes more than RedBull. So if we go to future races an they Lower the pressures a little (hhigh here with the nature of the Silverstone circuit)

3. If Lewis had not overdone Vale, he would have ended around 0.300-0.350 ahead of Max in qualifying. Looking at the mini sectors in S3, Lewis one purple mini sector but Vale cost him big. He was 0.384 slower on that Final run than what Bottas did. You would expect Lewis to be quicker than Bottas in all sectors, so Lewis could have gone 4 tenths quicker so a 1.25.8xx was looking likely which would have put him well ahead of Max by the 0.350 gap I mentioned above.

4. Mercedes have been stronger in the races rather than qualifying this season, so if this trend continues we could be looking at at least a 0.500 a lap advantage which is huge!

So for now, we should remain caution and to not get ahead of ourselves, but there is good reason to be optimistic. If on Sunday Lewis drives away from Max by around 0.500 a lap, then Toto's quote in Austria about beating RedBull by 30 seconds, won't be far wrong

[Sieper]

You can’t have a good sector 3 after a sector 2 where you asked too much of your tires. Max did that on his first Q3 run with a purple S2. Lewis had even bigger problems in S3 in his own second run. The cars are too close at the moment that one guy can have it all his way, they are facing similar problems. Which is in a way a very nice situation, if you want to see these 2 duke it out.

[e30ernest]

I'm cautiously optimistic. The Red Bull seems to be having some understeer during qualifying. It might be a case of the Mercs getting an incremental gain that was amplified by RB not performing well rather than Merc improving drastically better due to the updates.

[Juzh]

You can’t have a good sector 3 after a sector 2 where you asked too much of your tires. Max did that on his first Q3 run with a purple S2. Lewis had even bigger problems in S3 in his own second run. The cars are too close at the moment that one guy can have it all his way, they are facing similar problems. Which is in a way a very nice situation, if you want to see these 2 duke it out.

Verstappen's S2 time on his first Q3 lap was half a tenth faster than on his second Q3 lap which is nothing, but if you look at mini sectors he was actually green or purple in all corners on his second lap which would punish tyres more, but he still improved in S3, so I don't buy this "saving tyres" in sector 2 story.

[Sieper]

You can’t have a good sector 3 after a sector 2 where you asked too much of your tires. Max did that on his first Q3 run with a purple S2. Lewis had even bigger problems in S3 in his own second run. The cars are too close at the moment that one guy can have it all his way, they are facing similar problems. Which is in a way a very nice situation, if you want to see these 2 duke it out.

Verstappen's S2 time on his first Q3 lap was half a tenth faster than on his second Q3 lap which is nothing, but if you look at mini sectors he was actually green or purple in all corners on his second lap which would punish tyres more, but he still improved in S3, so I don't buy this "saving tyres" in sector 2 story.

It is not so much about buying stuff, I was trying to illustrate that I think the most likely cause for that power slide to happen was (over)heated tires at the end of the lap. I don’t think Lewis would have been caught out otherwise.

[TheRacingElf]

Might the new construction of the rear tyres given them a bit more grip, relative to the fronts? The Merc looked perfectly balanced where it struggled with rear grip before and the Red Bull went from perfectly balanced to understeery.

[F1Krof]

Oh FFS, sort these freaking starts already!

[rickybobbyf1]

Oh FFS, sort these freaking starts already!

Merc literally dropping the ball in every possible way…

[zibby43]

2 Mercs against 1 Bull tomorrow.