2021 AMG Mercedes F1 Team

[AeroDynamic]

It may be true that the RB was the outsider since summer break, and it goes to show and lends to my point; a lot of things went verstappen way when he was vulnerable to taking big points loses. Not overt bouts of fortune like the red flag in Imola for Hamilton, but absolutely an accumulation of smaller, but very important bits of help from external factors since the summer break.

[Aesop]

That will almost guarantee him the championship

That won't happen, such is the paceadvantage of the Mercs. It's Hamiltons title to lose now. Somehow Mercedes have found another gear, be it the engine, the rearwing or some unknown and secret upgrade. (Secret since they were supposed to have stopped development on the W12 almost 6 months ago...)
I can't see Verstappen turn this around one more time without some incident on track.

How can you say its his to lose and he isn't even ahead, and has to be perfect to win?
While Max is a head and does not need to be perfect to win?

Merc has a couple of tens in hand, Lewis was cruising today. It's not that difficult to be perfect with such a pace advantage. The mistakes Lewis made this year were under pressure from a more or less equal car, can't see it happen again.

[BlueCheetah66]

It may be true that the RB was the outsider since summer break, and it goes to show and lends to my point; a lot of things went verstappen way when he was vulnerable to taking big points loses. Not overt bouts of fortune like the red flag in Imola for Hamilton, but absolutely an accumulation of smaller, but very important bits of help from external factors since the summer break.

From what I can think of, Max has only had 2 'external factors' helping him, being Spa weather and Sochi weather. I'd argue Sochi is a stretch as well given every driver on the grid had the ability to pit for Inters

[ringo]

That won't happen, such is the paceadvantage of the Mercs. It's Hamiltons title to lose now. Somehow Mercedes have found another gear, be it the engine, the rearwing or some unknown and secret upgrade. (Secret since they were supposed to have stopped development on the W12 almost 6 months ago...)
I can't see Verstappen turn this around one more time without some incident on track.

How can you say its his to lose and he isn't even ahead, and has to be perfect to win?
While Max is a head and does not need to be perfect to win?

Merc has a couple of tens in hand, Lewis was cruising today. It's not that difficult to be perfect with such a pace advantage. The mistakes Lewis made this year were under pressure from a more or less equal car, can't see it happen again.

Well I disagree on your car theory, but you cannot deny that he must win 2 races. He has not won all the last races since 2014?
If he does not do this it is game over.
Max can come second for at least 1 and win the other.

[siskue2005]

How can you say its his to lose and he isn't even ahead, and has to be perfect to win?
While Max is a head and does not need to be perfect to win?

Merc has a couple of tens in hand, Lewis was cruising today. It's not that difficult to be perfect with such a pace advantage. The mistakes Lewis made this year were under pressure from a more or less equal car, can't see it happen again.

Well I disagree on your car theory, but you cannot deny that he must win 2 races. He has not won all the last races since 2014?
If he does not do this it is game over.
Max can come second for at least 1 and win the other.

Lewis won all the last 4 races in 2016 when he was behind in points
I can see a similar form from him now

[AeroDynamic]

It may be true that the RB was the outsider since summer break, and it goes to show and lends to my point; a lot of things went verstappen way when he was vulnerable to taking big points loses. Not overt bouts of fortune like the red flag in Imola for Hamilton, but absolutely an accumulation of smaller, but very important bits of help from external factors since the summer break.

From what I can think of, Max has only had 2 'external factors' helping him, being Spa weather and Sochi weather. I'd argue Sochi is a stretch as well given every driver on the grid had the ability to pit for Inters

Cut it anyway you want but without the weather lottery he was finishing outside p5. A race that doesn’t start wet becomes a lottery, and Sochi this year was one of the biggest examples of finale race lottery ever, that literally came down to chance/ coin flip.

I consider Turkey another one. It wasn’t a lottery, but you cannot deny that if that was a dry race, a drs enabled Hamilton would’ve drove circles around max in that vulnerable rb that weekend. Valterri looked dominant there, but the engine penalty as well, in theory was a good place like Brazil but the conditions went Max’s way. His understeering RB would’ve fell backwards in normal conditions too.

Didn’t USA temperatures pegg back the MCS slightly on its tyres?

For me, that’s three occasions where conditions / chance favoured max. If those were all dry, that’s 2 extra wins and this championship is already wrote off as another dominant MCS win.

I can’t think of many times where the conditions went against RB / Max other than Mexico qualifying?

Hamilton’s subpar start at Monza is one area where he would’ve
Let this championship if he does lose it.

You have to give credit to verstappen, even with the aid of conditions going his way since the summer break, he always found a way, including that aggressive attack in Monza, to not let Mercedes and Hamilton run away with a streak of wins at favoured MCS tracks since the summer break.

He did his bit in Monza, and absolutely did a stellar race in USA.



Conversely verstappen misfortunes have never been conditions, but mechanical, poor judgement , wrong place wrong time IMO. (Baku, Silverstone, Hungary)

If he loses it this year, he will never look at himself to grow, sorry but he just doesn’t strike me as that kind of person. He took 5 seasons to get a clue on how his judgement was pegging back the results he could bring home. But if he did look at himself, he would do Silverstone differently, either by not giving the inside to Lewis, or by just yielding to live to fight another corner, or the very least take the 18pts and he would be champion right now already. He can’t control Hungary or Baku, but Silverstone was something he could affect the outcome of with his driving and judgement. A lot of his fan will grow angry reading that and say it was lewis’ fault, that’s arguable. But you can’t deny that you just can’t control what other drivers are going to do, they might be very aggressive, and the only way to pre empt that is to drive around their move / leave space, or even yield. Lewis has shown this works several times this season and If he had driven wirh Max’s approach he would’ve had several dnfs.

[Aesop]

How can you say its his to lose and he isn't even ahead, and has to be perfect to win?
While Max is a head and does not need to be perfect to win?

Merc has a couple of tens in hand, Lewis was cruising today. It's not that difficult to be perfect with such a pace advantage. The mistakes Lewis made this year were under pressure from a more or less equal car, can't see it happen again.

Well I disagree on your car theory, but you cannot deny that he must win 2 races. He has not won all the last races since 2014?
If he does not do this it is game over.
Max can come second for at least 1 and win the other.

True. And after watching a Jeddah hotlap i have to admit anything can happen next race. Crazy circuit...

[1m0bius1]

Merc is going to destroy jeddah. There is like one or two slow corners on that track. Might outqualify rbr by 6 tenths at least

[ringo]

It may be true that the RB was the outsider since summer break, and it goes to show and lends to my point; a lot of things went verstappen way when he was vulnerable to taking big points loses. Not overt bouts of fortune like the red flag in Imola for Hamilton, but absolutely an accumulation of smaller, but very important bits of help from external factors since the summer break.

From what I can think of, Max has only had 2 'external factors' helping him, being Spa weather and Sochi weather. I'd argue Sochi is a stretch as well given every driver on the grid had the ability to pit for Inters

Cut it anyway you want but without the weather lottery he was finishing outside p5. A race that doesn’t start wet becomes a lottery, and Sochi this year was one of the biggest examples of finale race lottery ever, that literally came down to chance/ coin flip.

I consider Turkey another one. It wasn’t a lottery, but you cannot deny that if that was a dry race, a drs enabled Hamilton would’ve drove circles around max in that vulnerable rb that weekend. Valterri looked dominant there, but the engine penalty as well, in theory was a good place like Brazil but the conditions went Max’s way. His understeering RB would’ve fell backwards in normal conditions too.

Didn’t USA temperatures pegg back the MCS slightly on its tyres?

For me, that’s three occasions where conditions / chance favoured max. If those were all dry, that’s 2 extra wins and this championship is already wrote off as another dominant MCS win.

I can’t think of many times where the conditions went against RB / Max other than Mexico qualifying?

Hamilton’s subpar start at Monza is one area where he would’ve
Let this championship if he does lose it.

You have to give credit to verstappen, even with the aid of conditions going his way since the summer break, he always found a way, including that aggressive attack in Monza, to not let Mercedes and Hamilton run away with a streak of wins at favoured MCS tracks since the summer break.

He did his bit in Monza, and absolutely did a stellar race in USA.



Conversely verstappen misfortunes have never been conditions, but mechanical, poor judgement , wrong place wrong time IMO. (Baku, Silverstone, Hungary)

If he loses it this year, he will never look at himself to grow, sorry but he just doesn’t strike me as that kind of person. He took 5 seasons to get a clue on how his judgement was pegging back the results he could bring home. But if he did look at himself, he would do Silverstone differently, either by not giving the inside to Lewis, or by just yielding to live to fight another corner, or the very least take the 18pts and he would be champion right now already. He can’t control Hungary or Baku, but Silverstone was something he could affect the outcome of with his driving and judgement. A lot of his fan will grow angry reading that and say it was lewis’ fault, that’s arguable. But you can’t deny that you just can’t control what other drivers are going to do, they might be very aggressive, and the only way to pre empt that is to drive around their move / leave space, or even yield. Lewis has shown this works several times this season and If he had driven wirh Max’s approach he would’ve had several dnfs.

Max also was lucky that Hamilton did not get those 3 points from the Brazil sprint race.
Also luck for the VSC in Qatar to give him that fastest lap point.
A lot has gone his was by luck outside of his own making.
So all in all I think the whole season has balanced out somewhat.

The redbull is the kind of car that you win as many races as early as possible with. With most laps lead and most poles and most wins, it's hard to argue that it was not the car to have this season. I think he knows it's the car to have and that's why he is so quietly confident about the outcome at the end of the season; but the team principal is now beginning to sweat bullets. The Mercedes car is coming alive. I don't think its now dominant, but it's easier to setup and the window seems wider. Hamilton also seems to be peerless at the moment in terms of speed and craft; Max is a little behind now.

Hamilton's mistake this year was behaving too content and not hungry enough in the earlier stages. I think he was playing the long game too much. Many times he let Max go when he should not have. Also Mercedes were a bit too comfortable with the strategies. Hungary was the biggest strategic blunder there were also others.

[_cerber1]

I wonder what kind of equipment Toto is talking about?

[InsaneX_Badger]

I would be cautious about Jeddah, remember Singapore 2018 was supposed to be where Ferrari would gain good points on Merc. And then out of nowhere, Lewis pulled a magic lap out and qualified P1. We really won't know until we get there and put some laps in.

[Tvetovnato]

I would be cautious about Jeddah, remember Singapore 2018 was supposed to be where Ferrari would gain good points on Merc. And then out of nowhere, Lewis pulled a magic lap out and qualified P1. We really won't know until we get there and put some laps in.

This is true. Everyone had Mexico and Brazil bagged for RB but Brazil turned out differently. Even if Merc would have pace advantage in Jeddah, there are still a lot of things that can go wrong given that it’s a street circuit.

[pursue_one's]

I think redbull trying to confuse us by giving us wrong information.

Red Bull makes it easy

Mercedes had the faster car in Qatar, but the defending champions' opponents made life difficult for themselves. If you want to beat Mercedes, you can't radically change the set-up just before qualifying, because with the preferred wing type there are repeated problems with the flaps when DRS is open. This forced the engineers to unpack the Monaco wing. Verstappen cannot risk a penalty for yellow flags, whether real or on display. He already knew at that point that he would never beat Hamilton's pole position.

The campaign for bendable rear wings also took energy and time that Red Bull might better have invested in their own preparation. The drumbeat at least resulted in the FIA controlling the rear wings more strictly in Qatar, even if the new test had no regulatory significance. There was no technical directive to that effect. When the inspectors attached two 35-kilogram weights to the main blade of the Mercedes after qualifying, no suspicious flex could be detected.

Red Bull interpreted the result to mean that Mercedes had responded to the allegations. On Friday, the Silver Arrows were still 8 km/h faster in top speed. On Saturday it was only 3.5 km/h and in the race Verstappen even had a value 1.1 km/h higher. Although he used a wing with more downforce than on Friday. Red Bull sports boss Helmut Marko concluded: "They changed the wings between Friday and Saturday." Mercedes denies this. The same wings were on the car all three days.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... wm-finale/

[WaikeCU]

Before the season started, Allison said:

Another team of mystery - Mercedes have not shared the areas in which they have focused their token spend on. The decision to kept this a secret was made in order to prevent other teams from potentially having time to copy, technical director James Allison has said. He did however suggest that the areas where they have spent their tokens would "become clear in good time".

Is this it, since Brazil?

[Juzh]

Also luck for the VSC in Qatar to give him that fastest lap point.

Please explain how Hamilton could have gotten fastest lap point in Qatar without the VSC.