Yes it was- hence why it was a good day for them. They probably can’t believe they’ve grabbed 3rd and 4th.
Have we forgotten Murray Walker already? "To finish first, first you must finish." Mercedes did, Red Bull didn't. Mercedes deserved the points.
They did but still lucky, but tbf Mercedes are bullet proof When's the last time hamilton retired because of mechanical failure that engine blow up in 2016 off the top of my head?
I'm pretty certain Mercedes and their drivers are in control of any plans they need to succeed this season, Red Bull on the other hand are already proving their considerable incompetence. Did I hear Verstappen is a world champion, Really, yea right.
I think Ferrari performed well but Lewis was close to Sainz at one point, Ferrari will have to develop in parallel to stay ahead. I would be happy to see Ferrari make it this year, Lewis can wait till next year for his 8th.
Be really interesting to see how the cars develop but no doubt Red Bull and Ferrari have a lovely base to work with. What is mad is their relative similar performance with very different concepts! Be nice if we didn’t have total convergence of ideas
Mercedes seem to be confident that there is plenty of performance to unlock in the car. The question is how long is that going to take? A month, six months, a year?
Aero? Suspension? Who knows. They have to get the floor lowered it seems so it will be a light switch moment imo. I dont think it's necessarily outer body issue
https://the-race.com/formula-1/gary-anderson-red-bull-comparison-shows-likely-mercedes-flaw/ Interesting article here. In effect it says the entire merc design starting from the first position of the vanes for under floor being to far back, through the no side pods, wing thing etc and at the side floor is fundamentally flawed. The red bull is slammed to the floor all the time. The merc is bouncing madly and never getting close
I assume people have seen the onboards that look at the Merc front wing? It looks like the inboard and outboard elements are separated so the outboard ones can flex down at speed - how is that legal? I’ve not seen the same camera angle on other cars, do they all have the same design?
Is saw something at some point, but it seemed to be oscillating and didn't seem that would be particularly helpful. Have a link to the footage?
This is from a while ago, but looks like the behaviour shown in the Imola footage today https://www.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/comments/tayf3s/mercedes_front_wing_flex/ This seems to be from testing and better shows the high/low speed “setting” although I don’t recall seeing behaviour like this from race footage:
Yeah, that's similar to what I noticed. I wonder how useful that is given the way it's so erratic and oscillating. Either way, you could argue that it's not legal.
I think any design will bounce/oscillate and the porpoising could well exacerbate that, but to my mind there’s a definite flattening at speed, which seems designed to avoid drag. I get they’re not fast so probably no-one is that bothered yet, but it does seem really odd that it’s deemed ok. Would be keen to know if anyone has seen other cars with similar behaviour in this area?
Given their current mess, you'd think others would complain about it just to give them one more thing to think about. The car overall is an aero failure. So if that's by design or by trying to trim things back, it clearly doesn't work. But rules are rules.
I dunno. Seems a very deliberate design but it doesn't seem to be helping them much. It is flexing so it does seem.outside rules.
With George starting the complain about the physical effects of the porpoising on this car, they really need to find a solution before he starts to suffer effects that hinder his performance.l
first time I can remember not wanting to drive an F1 car, I might try a race online whilst sitting on a washing machine to see what it's like.
So Merc are bringing a new part or parts to Miami this week, hoping it will confirm they are on the right track. Mercedes aiming to bring upgrades for Miami race to help car issues - BBC Sport If I was Lewis, I would be very philosophical about this season. An opportunity to be less in the lime light, have a different challenge, he could see it as fun, not a downer. .