A long story about how Mercedes needs to appear down on its luck while commanding control over the entire circus.
I like your post and I smiled lol We both realize this is an efficient organization that has the focus, capability to review, change and grow into this new situation. I think of all the teams they will emerge strong. I hope Ferrari take such an approach and find the same yield in terms of performance.
Exactly. When Vettel was winning everything under the sun I believed he was well on his way on becoming a true great. Won in a Toro Rosso, multiple very close calls for a podium starting as soon as 2007 even, and then of course 4 titles, 2 of which very dominant. But reality showed us more, his inability to adapt to a car he doesn't like (no matter the reasons behind it, Leclerc has showed what's truly possible with that POS) and mental fragility shone through so a great he just isn't. I remain a fan of his however. 4-5 races is a reasonable time to acclimate to a team. I expect him to solidly beat Stroll.
He is a Traitor b/c he left Italy to be close to his English family following the tragic death of his wife and subsequently joined a local team named Mercedes?
A bit harsh, yes, but he did leave the team after they did all they could to accommodate his grieving and also, per the rumours, after he didn’t allow any developments while he was away. For all those who think Ferrari is “too Italian” and should recruit more foreigners, this is the perfect example of why they want to develop their own local talent and be “self sufficient”: history has shown that you can’t build a long-term plan based on ex-pat designers as there will always be something that will draw them back home, either family or other longing to be back home.
Working or driving in the Ferrari environment with its intrigues and volatile atmosphere after a few years takes its toll on many non-Italians. It may sound glamourous at first, but then reality hits them.
Right, because the stability at McLaren and Williams has kept them at the sharp end of the grid these last years Also, you seem to know quite a lot about the inner workings of Ferrari—did you work there by any chance? Right; that short-term period.
I don’t know why too many Italians is a handicap?. For me it is a quality. It is difficult for some to overcome racist stereotypes to realize that this is a conductor’s problem.
Germans were and are at the forefront of hybridization-->Porsche, Audi, & Mercedes in motorsports. Italy not so much. The LaFerrari, Ferrari SF90 Stradale, and Lamborghini Sian and Urus, are the only hybrids coming out of Italy
Mercedes and Aston Martin will be the suppliers of the safety and medical car in 2021. Mayländer and van der Merwe will remain as drivers. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Toto Wolff puts up a brave face, but the budget cap may affect Mercedes more than other teams, and lose them the 2021 title. Creative accounting can not hide the huge shrinking imposed and they will have to abandon some of their resources to comply. It's like champagne taste against lemonade money.
Oh but investment was made the last 2 years in anticipation of this. Mercedes 'front loaded' all costs into last year to compensate. This was done by the other major teams I believe as well. Prudent and obvious planning. ---From late summer 2019: An extensive overhaul of the technical regulations is planned for the 2021 season along with a cap limiting how much teams can spend on car development. However Renault’s executive director Marcin Budkowski believes F1 leading teams Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will be able to sustain their advantage. “What’s too bad is that the budget cap won’t be implemented until the start of the 2021 season,” Budkowski told Engadget. “However, the 2021 cars will go into development this year and next, with no budget cap applied. “That means there’s a good chance the big teams will be able to keep their lead and reduce the competitiveness, right from the very start.”---
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-data-shows-were-not-as-quick-as-red-bull-after-f1-testing/5729945/ Mercedes suffered setbacks on the first two days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas losing track time to issues and reporting rear-end instability with the car. Although Mercedes closed out the running in Bahrain with a trouble-free final day, the team still ended testing at the bottom of the mileage table. Lewis Hamilton ended testing with the fifth-fastest time, but was over a second off Max Verstappen's best effort for Red Bull. Although Red Bull has moved to downplay its favourite tag, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said at the end of testing that the team's data proved it was behind on pace. "We've made a bit of progress with the balance on higher fuel and the car was more predictable but we can see from the data we've collected over the last few days that on race pace, we're not as quick as Red Bull," Shovlin said. "The lower fuel work was a more confusing picture, we didn't gain enough and we need to go and look at our approach as far too many cars were ahead of us on pace today. "We've had issues in recent years with pace in winter testing and managed to make good progress before the first race but we may have our work cut out this time. Image Unavailable, Please Login Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12 Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images "We've not got long before we're back here for the race so we've planned a programme of work to try and understand some of our issues and will be leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to find some more speed over the next 10 days." Mercedes spent the final day of testing focusing on long-run set-up work with Bottas in the morning before Hamilton conducted a mix of long-runs and qualifying simulations in the evening. Even fitting the softest available C5 compound tyre, Hamilton struggled to match Verstappen's pace in the Red Bull. "Today we made some improvements but it's still not where we want to be," Hamilton said. "I can't pick out any one area, it just feels globally through the lap that we need to improve. I'm looking forward to getting back into competition and back in that focus mode."
Everything the modern Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team fan needs... Image Unavailable, Please Login https://f1store.formula1.com/en/league/formula_1/team/mercedes-amg_petronas_f1_team/category/8008/browse/featuredproduct/12046203/mercedes-amg_petronas_f1_team/o-9903+t-9882+d-8008+f-12046203?_s=ig-sclmp-SP_F1&sku=35296689&utm_medium=social What a unique... style. All the best, Andrew.