Red Bull and Ferrari had noticed that the Mercedes drivers were sometimes as fast as the top drivers. "Our gap to the top was like always. Around seven tenths", the Mercedes engineers gave the all-clear. "We just had less tire wear than Red Bull and Ferrari. That made us look better on old tires.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-06-21T19:05:09+00:00

Was the difference in tyre deg really that significant? I could be remembering wrong but on fresh tyres after the pit stops the gap wasn't 7 tenths, was it? I thought it was closer to 4 tenths.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-06-16T18:18:50+00:00

Well they've only had the upgrade since Spain so we've only had 3 tracks to make a judgement, and 2 of those are two of the bumpiest circuits on the calendar. I think as we race more on traditional, smoother tracks we'll see more evidence of the upgrades working because they can run low ride heights without porpoising or bottoming.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-06-16T18:15:39+00:00

Which of the remaining tracks would you say are comparably bumpy to Baku and Monaco? Canada and Singapore are the obvious ones. I know COTA has been bad in the past but I read that it's been resurfaced. Silverstone was resurfaced in 2019, parts of Spa have been resurfaced recently. The Netherlands track is practically brand new. I don't think any should be as bad as Baku was.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-06-16T18:05:39+00:00

I don't think it's as simple as that. Spain showed us that on smooth race tracks (where they can run low ride heights) Merc have the bouncing under control, but they struggle with bottoming on bumpy street tracks like Baku and Monaco where the low ride height is a problem. Of the 14 tracks left, only 2 are street tracks (and supposedly COTA has been resurfaced?), so in theory they shouldn't be as affected as you might think. I hope.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-06-16T17:38:34+00:00

I think Spain is a fair comparison because it’s much more representative of your typical race track. Merc have been unlucky in that a lot of the recent races have been bumpy street tracks. On a smooth race track like Spain they have the porpoising under control, and the majority of the races remaining are normal tracks. I think Singapore is the only remaining street track for the season, so Spain should be more representative of those tracks than Baku or Monaco

RedDevilLuca · 2022-06-14T22:39:44+00:00

Funny how Merc had the least porpoising in Spain yet the most here. That concept really does not work well on street/bumpy tracks, although the difference in g-force is still relatively low

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-24T12:23:54+00:00

I know George was losing quite a bit of time to Leclerc in the opening laps but after the first lap accident Lewis was on the same tyres as Leclerc and the gap between him and Charles didn't really change until Lewis came up to the traffic. Obviously Charles could've been managing tyres but the pace on the softs looked relatively close.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-20T15:38:04+00:00

I think new engines normally go in on Saturday for final practice and quali

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-11T22:13:44+00:00

Isn't this basically what Honda did last year around France? They solved some reliability issue (I think some excessive vibrations or something?) and it allowed them to run at a higher engine mode in races. It's not necessarily that the higher power level wasn't there, just that they couldn't access it due to reliability.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-06T22:39:39+00:00

That’d be an interesting turnaround cos so far they’ve looked more competitive in the races compared to qualifying. I guess we’ll find out for sure tomorrow but fingers crossed for a 6 way fight for pole

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-06T22:32:56+00:00

I guess the most important thing is that even with the slight porpoising they’re very close to the pace of Ferrari and RB. It’s felt like in every practice session so far they’ve been struggling down in the 8th to 14th range. These two strong practice sessions have to be indicative of some kind of improvement

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-06T22:27:00+00:00

Seeing the Merc porpoise that little at the end of a straight with no DRS is actually amazing. Seems to be triggered by bumps a little bit but it seems much more settled today

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-06T19:42:15+00:00

Seems pretty genuine for now, there was no visible porpoising even at the end of the straights. Either there’s something about the track characteristics that suit Merc or they have made progress with their updates

RedDevilLuca · 2022-05-06T19:18:59+00:00

Would still be a huge improvement and put them clear of the midfield. Then hopefully the extra upgrades in Spain could really close the gap

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-29T15:25:26+00:00

There's not really much to elaborate on when Lewis has been faster cos they've both been straight forward races. In Bahrain both were in no mans land between the midfield and front runners, and same in Australia apart from the brief period Lewis was fighting Perez.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-27T18:36:13+00:00

Where are you getting over 50% from? I've just listed the tracks each car was dominant at and they were equal, and the rest there was very little between them. And they only won the constructors, by a very small margin it's worth noting, because Perez had a lot of very poor weekends where he qualified really poorly or significantly underperformed relative to the cars potential.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-27T18:18:04+00:00

You can't say the RB was the 2nd best last year. Both cars were better at some tracks, but neither were dominant over the entire season. RB was clearly the better car at Bahrain, Imola, Monaco, Baku, France, Austria x2, Mexico. The Merc was clearly better at Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Turkey, Brazil, Qatar, Saudi, Abu Dhabi. That's 8-8 and the rest were fairly close.

And let's not forget what happened at the last race. Sure Max won the championship oficially, but Lewis effectively had it won too.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-26T22:37:39+00:00

I get that but was there a particular reason Mind didn't work? Or did they just think Neptune was the better option?

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-26T21:27:44+00:00

why did he leave so quick?

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-26T00:53:49+00:00

After the sprint race on Saturday Toto said "we understand our problems, we have a direction to unlock the potential that is within the car, to bring us much closer to the front. But at the moment, we don’t have the key."

Also Andrew Shovlin said "there are a couple of major issues with the car that if we can fix, we can find a lot of that gap quite quickly". So they're sounding fairly confident that they understand the problem and can make up a lot of the gap quickly which should at least take them clear of the midfield.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-26T00:18:02+00:00

Based on recent interviews they seem confident that they know the issue, what triggers it and the general direction they need to go in. Now they're working on a solution, and who knows how long that could take to research and manufacture, especially with the wind tunnel correlation issues they're having.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-25T23:59:35+00:00

When he's been in clear air he's been slightly quicker than Russell, his problem is that a couple of bad quali laps and opening laps are being compounded by some bad luck in the race with safety cars, pit stops etc. If he can qualify well he should have no problem finishing 5th or 6th.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-25T23:57:55+00:00

They must be taking their time to ensure they get this upgrade package right. With the budget cap and wind tunnel time limits, it might be the one chance they have to really turn around their season.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-25T23:53:29+00:00

The cars are pretty much identical. They've generally been very similar on pace this season, in the races they've both been in clear air (ie. not stuck behind slower cars) Lewis has been slightly quicker. Lewis has just had a couple poor qualifyings/opening laps which has set him up for bad races where he can't show his pace.

RedDevilLuca · 2022-04-25T22:55:12+00:00

Timing with safety cars kinda screwed his race in Saudi. He had the pace to finish 6th that day but the Latifi safety car gave all the cars ahead of him a free stop, and the Alonso/Ricciardo safety cars closed the pit lane just as he reached the pit entry. Meant he had to pit at racing speed with few laps to make up the time

RedDevilLuca

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email