Russell: Mercedes made ‘very clear’ I’ll get equal treatment with Hamilton By: Luke Smith Sep 9, 2021, 12:57 PM George Russell says Mercedes made it “very clear” that he will be on “level terms” with Lewis Hamilton when they become Formula 1 team-mates in 2022. Mercedes put an end to months of speculation by announcing on Tuesday that Russell would be joining its works F1 team next year, replacing Valtteri Bottas after spending three seasons with Williams. Russell has been a member of Mercedes’ young driver programme since 2017, and deputised for Hamilton at last year’s Sakhir Grand Prix after the seven-time world champion was ruled out by COVID-19. The move will provide Russell the first chance of his F1 career to regularly fight at the front of the field, with many expecting there to be a close fight against Hamilton, a driver 13 years his senior. But Russell is not joining Mercedes expecting to play a number two role to Hamilton, saying that he would be “definitely going on level terms” next year. “That was made very clear to me,” Russell said. “I think Mercedes are always respectful in that regard, to give both drivers the best opportunity. “Naturally I believe in myself, and I have high aspirations. But equally I know just how tough it is going to be. “Lewis is a seven-time world champion for a reason, and I think I’m in probably one of the most fortunate positions on the grid to be able to go out there and learn from him. “For myself, I see this partnership with Mercedes as a long-term thing, and I guess I need to use next year as a real opportunity to learn, and take it race by race, and just see how I get on. “But I’ve got no initial thoughts really.” Mercedes has always given its F1 drivers equal opportunities within the team, and has only implemented team orders when one driver looks firmly out of the title race, seen most clearly at the 2018 Russian Grand Prix when Bottas moved aside to let Hamilton win the race. Hamilton’s former team-mate, Nico Rosberg, recently said Russell arriving could make the atmosphere in Mercedes “more heated”, while Max Verstappen felt Russell would make life “very difficult” for Hamilton. Russell was confident there would be no repeat of any intra-team issues at Mercedes upon his arrival, and that the team had learned from previous experiences. “I think Mercedes have had clear experience of a poor dynamic within the team, and they’ve made it absolutely clear that they don’t want a repeat,” Russell said. “On a personal level as well, I don’t want that either. I think it’s so important as team-mates to work together, to push the team. “Next year it’s a new car and new regulations. There’s no guarantees who is going to have the fastest car. I guess it’s our job as drivers to push that forward. “I'd say as well, Lewis and I are at very different stages of our career, which I think also helps, and I have a huge amount of respect for him, I think being so much younger and looking up to him as a young karting driver changes that dynamic a lot too. “I don’t see there being any issues at all.” https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/russell-mercedes-made-very-clear-ill-get-equal-treatment-with-hamilton/6663507/
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/hamilton-mercedes-f1-team-well-set-to-avoid-tension-with-russell/6663559/ Hamilton: Mercedes F1 team "well set" to avoid tension with Russell By: Jonathan Noble Sep 9, 2021, 2:11 PM Lewis Hamilton thinks his Mercedes Formula 1 team is “well set” to avoid a repeat of any team-mate tensions when George Russell joins next year. Mercedes endured some difficult spells when Hamilton and then team-mate Nico Rosberg raced alongside each other from 2013 to 2016. As well as having a difficult relationship behind the scenes, Mercedes found itself having to manage an increasingly fraught situation between the two drivers – especially as there were a number of collisions between them. Things have been much better inside the team since Valtteri Bottas arrived in 2017, and Hamilton is hopeful that the arrival of Russell to replace Alfa Romeo-bound Bottas will not result in things reverting to how they were before, amid suggestions from Rosberg that relations inside the team could be "more heated" with Russell as his team-mate. Asked if it was possible for two evenly matched drivers to ever properly get on, Hamilton said: “I think history has shown that it can and history has shown that it can't. PLUS: The challenge Russell will pose to Hamilton’s Mercedes legacy “It's different in each team, and it is ultimately how it's managed. But it's quite a strange sport where it's a team sport, but it's also an individual sport. So you've got those two championships. “Individually you want to finish ahead, but at the same time, you've got to do the job to get the team ahead. So it's a difficult one to navigate through. “But I'd like to think that we've experienced it and learned from it and therefore we should be pretty well set moving forwards.” Although Hamilton is sad to see Bottas depart, having remarked at Spa that their working relationship was “better than ever”, the 36-year-old thinks that the arrival of Russell - 13 years his junior - will bring a fresh dynamic to Mercedes. “Naturally he is a part of that younger group and I think the young talent that's coming through is so great for the sport, and is the future of the sport,” he explained. Image Unavailable, Please Login George Russell, Williams Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images “I think new fresh blood in our team is going to be great, obviously because I'm the oldy there. I think that definitely will energise the whole team, knowing they have a new youngster coming through, who's super hungry, driven, and will be pushing the team forward.” PLUS: Why F1’s new generation will bring ‘fresh air’ to the championship Hamilton was also in no doubt that Russell will pose a strong challenge to him, having been outqualified by the current Williams driver for the Belgian GP. When asked if he had looked at Russell's strengths and weaknesses, Hamilton replied: “I've watched George come through F3 and F2. Of course, I've watched a lot of the racing he has done, and the moves that he's done. “There's no doubt that he's incredibly talented, but I've not looked into detail where he's weak. That’s not something I really put much energy towards. “I just know that he's going to continue to get stronger, even in these next races. And next year again he'll be bringing the heat for sure.”
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-not-definite-hamilton-must-take-extra-f1-engine/6668186/ Mercedes: Not definite Hamilton must take extra F1 engine By:Luke Smith Sep 15, 2021, 9:44 AM Toto Wolff says it is "not an absolute must" that Lewis Hamilton will need to take an additional Formula 1 power unit this season and serve a grid penalty. Image Unavailable, Please Login Teams are entering the final third of the 2021 season braced for possible penalties as they hit the limit of their season allocation for power unit elements. Red Bull has already confirmed that Max Verstappen will have to take a grid drop at a race later this year after losing one of his engines in a crash at Silverstone with title rival Hamilton, but will do so strategically at a track it thinks would allow for Verstappen to recover places. Mercedes opted to move Bottas onto his fourth power unit of the season at Monza, meaning the Finn started the race from the back of the grid despite topping qualifying and winning the sprint race. But Mercedes F1 chief Wolff explained that it was not a definite decision that Hamilton would take a grid drop at some point this year, given he still has life in his latest power unit. "No, it's not an absolute must because we're still running very comfortably with this power unit," Wolff said. "It's a decision that can be made at any time but, at the moment, we don't feel it's necessary. "Does that mean we're not going to take a fourth? No, it doesn't. We will see how the next races pan out."
Formula 1 News- https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-has-a-few-balls-in-the-air-over-f1-engine-reliability/6677377/ Mercedes has "a few balls in the air" over F1 engine reliability By: Jonathan Noble Sep 28, 2021, 4:18 AM Mercedes has admitted it is juggling some uncertainties over engine reliability as it heads into the final part of the 2021 Formula 1 campaign. Image Unavailable, Please Login While Mercedes hopes to get through the rest of the season without needing a fresh power unit for championship leader Lewis Hamilton, there are growing concerns that it may have to do so and take a grid penalty. The precarious situation the team is in was highlighted over the Russian Grand Prix weekend when a fresh engine Valtteri Bottas had fitted in Italy hit trouble and had to be removed. That forced another power unit change, which dropped the Finn down the order on the same weekend that Williams driver Nicholas Latifi also took a grid drop. While Mercedes is awaiting analysis of the Monza power unit to find out if it can be used again, team boss Toto Wolff conceded that things were a bit unsettled at the moment regarding its engine prospects. As well as dealing with this season's plans, Mercedes needs to be committing to its 2022 project when engine specs are fully frozen. "That's why we're having a few balls in the air, because you need to have the right balance between making sure that you really sort out all the gremlins that you have in the power unit, not only for this year but also for next year's power unit," he said. "Definitely, we are in a phase of assessment on how to continue the season in terms of power units." Speaking over the Russian GP weekend, Hamilton said he was mindful of not stressing his current engines too much in a bid to try to help the situation. Image Unavailable, Please Login Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB16B Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images "Of course I lost one engine. Valtteri's had several," he said. "And there's been others that Mercedes have seen up and down the paddock. "So right now, I'm trying to treat my engines, the ones that we put in, with the absolute care when I'm driving, in terms of how much I'm gassing it, how much just revving the things, revving the nuts off it, really trying to minimise the laps that I do." Wolff said that the Bottas Monza unit would be inspected before the next race in Turkey. "We want to understand the engine's performance, and that has given us some question marks," he explained. "At the moment we just take it one race weekend at the time and reassess the performance of the power unit, and then that's it." Asked if engine reliability was now Mercedes' biggest concern in the title chase, Wolff said it was clear that the team could not afford a failure in a race. "It's always reliability versus performance, it's always a fine line that you need to get right," he said. "DNFing, obviously, is a no go for the championship and nobody, neither us nor our competitors, can afford a zero points race weekend."
Yes. He needs what little extra momentum in Mexico the new PU can provide. All RedBull all the time in Mexico lol
Petronas to end decade-long relationship with Mercedes-AMG, Aramco set to become title sponsor Image Unavailable, Please Login Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas is to conclude its title sponsorship agreement with Mercedes-AMG F1 at the end of the season, after 11 years since it joined forces with the German team. Decalspotters understands from sources that Petronas is departing from its association with Formula 1 and the Mercedes-AMG team as the 2022 season concludes, with Saudi oil giant Aramco set to be its replacement. Petronas has backed the Brackley-based team since its return as a works team in 2010, having won 7 World Contructors and Drivers’ Championships together. Mercedes’ success in the F1 hybrid-era is commonly attributed to the rapid evolution of Petronas lubricants and oil formulas which were developed across the years in Malaysia and at Grands Prix. Since its association with the German manufacturer, Petronas has become an important name in motorsport, alongside Mercedes’ projects in GT and a short-lived prospect in MotoGP. The Malaysian oil company has suffered massively in its finances from the COVID-19 pandemic, as it recorded multi-million loses since 2020 due to lower oil prices and demand. It comes as no surprise Petronas would reassess its marketing efforts in F1 and implement cost-cutting measures after a huge economic hit and the announcement of the company’s withdrawal from motorcycling racing in August. As such, Petronas is to be uninvolved with world-class motorsport championships for the first time since the early ’90s. Old friends, new chapter Aramco is the name of the title sponsor to-be, another state-owned company from Saudi Arabia. The oil giant signed as a Formula 1 Global Partner at the start of 2020 on a multi-year deal valued at more than $450 million, including naming rights to 3 Grands Prix and supporting F1’s Esports division. Since the announcement, F1 fans have been vocal about the sport’s involvement with Aramco, criticising the Saudi government’s human rights record and sportswashing attempts. However, this isn’t the first time Aramco has been involved in talks with Mercedes-AMG, Decalspotters learned, as the company was discussing signing with the team instead of F1. Despite the successes on-track, Petronas higher-ups were unhappy with the team’s treatment of its title partner. Upon knowing of the talks between Mercedes-AMG and Aramco, Petronas also began negotiating with Formula 1. If Aramco signed with Mercedes, Petronas would become Global Partners with Formula 1, and if Aramco went with F1 then Petronas would stay with Mercedes At the end, the German manufacturer renewed with the Malaysian company and Saudi Aramco went to sign with the sport. Another factor comes in INEOS, part-owner and main sponsor of Mercedes-AMG F1, having signed a deal with Aramco and TotalEnergies in 2019, investing in the construction of three plants in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The team’s partnership with Aramco is set to kickstart in 2022, with the company’s green-blue colour palette replacing Petronas’ turquoise accents on Mercedes-AMG’s branding. https://decalspotters.com/2021/10/17/petronas-to-end-decade-long-relationship-with-mercedes-amg-aramco-set-to-become-title-sponsor/
Mercedes will not replace Petronas with Aramco in 2022 - https://www.gpfans.com/en/f1-news/70984/mercedes-will-not-replace-petronas-with-aramco-in-2022/
Petronas remains committed to Mercedes F1 team, Aramco rumours dismissed Image Unavailable, Please Login https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/petronas-remains-committed-to-mercedes-f1-team-aramco-rumours-dismissed/6688193/ also Statement on Partnership Between PETRONAS and Mercedes https://www.petronas.com/media/press-release/statement-partnership-between-petronas-and-mercedes
More proof Toto and the rest of the 'management' failed to 'manage' Bottas correctly! Bottas: Certainty over F1 future helping me focus on driving By: Jonathan Noble Oct 18, 2021, 8:08 AM Valtteri Bottas says his recent upswing in results in Formula 1 has been helped by his future in the sport being settled.
5 years of 1 year contracts. 5 years of whenever he had success (beat Hamilton), the team was in a sombre mood and couldn't give a toss about him. I'm amazed he lasted this long.
One could think the new 2022 Mercredes should be a good car........... https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/revealed-why-mercedes-didnt-spend-upgrade-tokens-on-2021-f1-car/6935000/ Revealed: Why Mercedes didn’t spend upgrade tokens on 2021 F1 car By: Jonathan Noble Dec 21, 2021, 3:00 AM One of the surprises of the 2021 Formula 1 season is that Mercedes did not end up spending any development tokens on its constructors’ championship-winning car. Image Unavailable, Please Login As part of the rules aimed to help F1 get through the financial difficulties triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, teams were forced to carry over their 2020 chassis in to this year. However, they were allowed to make limited upgrades – which were restricted to the spending of two tokens that were weighted depending on how significant a part of the car was involved. Mercedes was quite cryptic during the launch of its W12 car about where it had spent its tokens, as it kept its development plans close to its chest. Current chief technical officer James Allison said: “There are some parts of the car that you can change token-free, for example the power unit, the cooling systems, the suspension and of course all of the aerodynamic surfaces. "We have spent our tokens, but we won't reveal how we used them just yet. That'll become clear in good time." But with the team having secured the constructors’ championship, it has now emerged that Mercedes never did actually get around to spending its tokens officially. Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott has confirmed: “For us, I don't think we actually ended up spending the tokens. “We had ideas of things we wanted to do around the front of the car. The reality was we had ideas of stuff we wanted to do, but they didn't come to fruition in the end.” Autosport understands that a combination of the timing of the homologation deadlines, a late rule change from the FIA and the implications of new floor regulations conspired to prevent the team spending them where it wanted to. Image Unavailable, Please Login Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12 Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images As part of the token spend rules for 2021, teams had to make decisions in July 2020 and inform the FIA of where they planned to change any homologated components. So, by the 22 July deadline, Mercedes had made the call to spend its tokens on an upgraded nose that it believed would improve the car’s aerodynamics. However, in the wake of the British Grand Prix tyre failures in August, the FIA wrote to teams after the race to inform them that it wanted to make a further step in aero regulation changes for 2021 to cut back on downforce even more. This included greater restrictions on the floor dimensions, plus changes to the lower bargeboard area – which would especially hurt Mercedes. Aware of the implication of the changes, and how they would hurt the low rake cars more than the high rake models, the most obvious solution then would have been for Mercedes to alter its gearbox to help it raise the rear ride height to overcome the consequences. However, this was not possible because the homologation restrictions had already forced teams to commit to any gearbox changes just five days after the end of the 2020 shutdown in June. So it was too late to go down that route. Mercedes was instead locked in with its original plan to spend tokens on its nose, which it had opted for when it was not aware of the full implications of changes to the 2021 rules. Image Unavailable, Please Login Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12, makes a pit stop Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images However, its plans for the nose ultimately changed when the consequences of the rule changes were made clear during a particularly difficult pre-season testing programme. Elliott confirmed that it was the overall loss of downforce, rather than any particular balance problem with the car, that was its main concern during early running. “I think when you've got a car that's dominant, which we've had previously, the balance you've got doesn't really matter so much to the drivers,” added Elliott. “So I don't think the issue we had at the beginning of season was so much balance, I think we just lost of lot of aerodynamic performance overall. “Whether that hit us as hard as it hit other people, that's always impossible to judge because we don't know what the impact was on the other cars. “All we know is by the time we'd done our work over the winter and turned up at the tracks, the sort of the advantage we had in the [2020] season, certainly advantages we had mid-season, had disappeared.” Well aware of the work needed to recover, and with restricted wind tunnel time and the implications of the cost cap, Mercedes decided that it was better off focusing its 2021 efforts on sorting the basic package to overcome the downforce losses triggered by the new rules rather than pursuing the new nose. That decision meant the plans for the nose were quietly shelved – so Mercedes never got around to running it and spending its tokens. Despite the difficulties the team faced, Mercedes recovered to secure the constructors’ championship at the final round of the season, with Lewis Hamilton just missing out on the drivers’ crown thanks to the late race safety car restart in Abu Dhabi.
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/the-steering-wheel-changes-mercedes-prepared-for-russell/6969003/ The steering wheel changes Mercedes prepared for Russell By: Matt Somerfield Co-author: Giorgio Piola Dec 23, 2021, 10:06 AM George Russell was always clear that his outing for Mercedes at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix delivered him knowledge that could be put to good use on his return to Williams. Image Unavailable, Please Login For although there was little time to make major changes to the W11 in the short period he had before the Bahrain weekend got going, the insight he got in to Lewis Hamilton’s approach and demands was hugely valuable. One example was the way he had to use Hamilton’s steering wheel layout, which includes his single wishbone-style paddle arrangement. Upon his return to Williams, Russell set about using this information to benefit himself and the team. He duly asked that modifications be made to his clutch paddle arrangement in line with what he’d had at his disposal when driving the Mercedes. Image Unavailable, Please Login The arrangement on the Williams steering wheel was a twin paddle affair in 2020 (above), with two levers, complete with finger moulded sockets, used to help the driver release the clutch. Having taken onboard Russell’s request, the wheel adopted for 2021 featured just a single, longer paddle (below) operated by his right hand. It too has the finger socket on the end in order that he might be able to get more stability when modulating the lever. Image Unavailable, Please Login Having signed full-time to join Mercedes in 2022, Russell returned to the cockpit in the recent post season Abu Dhabi test when he ran the W10 mule car to evaluate F1’s new 18-inch wheels. Wasting no time, Mercedes had prepared a new steering wheel for his arrival, taking cues from Hamilton’s design but with a couple of key differences based on Russell’s feedback. The throw of the lever is fairly comparable all things considered. However, the socketed section is closer to the wheel’s centreline, and the hinged mounting point is much closer to the left-hand grip. This is probably down to the difference between how the two hold the wheel when conducting a start, with Hamilton known to have a novel approach whereby he grips the upper left corner of the steering wheel. Image Unavailable, Please Login Steering wheel of Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12 Photo by: Giorgio Piola It will be interesting to see if any further changes occur between now and the start of next season, as steering wheel arrangements can often be areas where drivers find small nuggets of performance.
A new era of @F1 starts right here… Firing up our 2022 F1 car for the first time - the W13 is ALIVE. pic.twitter.com/fphuaVp2dI — Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 23, 2021 https://motorsport.tv/embed/xCWJRra8-firing-up-the-2022-mercedes-amg-f1-car Mercedes first team to fire up 2022 F1 car Mercedes has become the first Formula 1 team to confirm it has fired up its 2022 car. Jonathan Noble Dec 23, 2021, 11:18 AM Less than a fortnight on from the final round of the 2021 F1 campaign, the Brackley-based outfit published a short video on Thursday revealing the fire up of the new W13. The video showed staff at its factory overlooking the event, with Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff being kept up to date with developments via a live video link on a mobile phone. The images offered no further clues about the design of the new Mercedes car, which Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will race in 2022. While the pre-Christmas fire-up of the Mercedes car shows how far the team has progressed, teams are still set to wait until February to launch its definitive new challengers. With an all-new rule set coming in to play, the rate of development of the new ground effect cars means teams want to wait as long as possible before committing to their final design. With teams also mindful that rivals will want to learn as much as they can from the opposition, there will not be much incentive to release details too early in case others can copy the best ideas. F1’s first pre-season test is due to take place at Barcelona in Spain on February 23-25, with teams expected to unveil their cars in the weeks before then. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/mercedes-first-team-to-fire-up-2022-f1-car/6971594/
