F1 2022 Season

SilentWitness said:
I don’t think he’s lost anything. I just don’t think it is a factor that can be ignored that drivers nearing the end of their career will be different compared to a driver at the beginning. Especially when the young driver is one of Russell’s talent (would put him ahead of Rosberg).
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Its probably also harder for someone used to winning to motivate himself to battle for 5th. For Russell, it’s still a lot better than a Williams and he knows he’s got time to wait for Merc to improve.

It would be great if Merc could solve this issue, as the Barcelona race with them being a lot closer to the lead two teams was a great race. Hopefully there will at least be a few races like that for the two Merc drivers to showcase their talents without suffering whiplash on every straight.
 
dinostar77 said:
When schmacher came back to F1 with Rosberg with his teammate, Schmacher had lost none of his reaction times in comparision to a young rosberg. The problem was the Mercedes at the time didnt suit Schumacher's driving style. He liked cars with a pointy front end which required a stable rear end. Seeing as the Mercedes back then was eating its rears like a true AMG road car, schmacher ended up looking average against Rosberg and people were saying he'd lost "it". Its similar to lewis at the moment, his differential to his teammates has always been the speed he can carry into a corner, brake later and get on the power earlier. He cant do that in a car as unstable as the current Mercedes but Russell can cope better with the current car. That doesn't mean he's lost "it". Its just the car currently doesnt suit his driving style.
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Get out of this thread and take your common sense with you!
 
dinostar77 said:
When schmacher came back to F1 with Rosberg with his teammate, Schmacher had lost none of his reaction times in comparision to a young rosberg. The problem was the Mercedes at the time didnt suit Schumacher's driving style. He liked cars with a pointy front end which required a stable rear end. Seeing as the Mercedes back then was eating its rears like a true AMG road car, schmacher ended up looking average against Rosberg and people were saying he'd lost "it". Its similar to lewis at the moment, his differential to his teammates has always been the speed he can carry into a corner, brake later and get on the power earlier. He cant do that in a car as unstable as the current Mercedes but Russell can cope better with the current car. That doesn't mean he's lost "it". Its just the car currently doesnt suit his driving style.
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It's also fair to say he's simply just not enjoying/struggling more with the bouncing. Maybe Russell can handle that better too.

When the car was behaving at Spain he was clearly the faster, so.
 
Leclerc and Perez really dancing with the cars. Hopefully Ferrari can see this pole to a race win and not get caught out with strategy.
 
dinostar77 said:
When schmacher came back to F1 with Rosberg with his teammate, Schmacher had lost none of his reaction times in comparision to a young rosberg. The problem was the Mercedes at the time didnt suit Schumacher's driving style. He liked cars with a pointy front end which required a stable rear end. Seeing as the Mercedes back then was eating its rears like a true AMG road car, schmacher ended up looking average against Rosberg and people were saying he'd lost "it". Its similar to lewis at the moment, his differential to his teammates has always been the speed he can carry into a corner, brake later and get on the power earlier. He cant do that in a car as unstable as the current Mercedes but Russell can cope better with the current car. That doesn't mean he's lost "it". Its just the car currently doesnt suit his driving style.
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Im not arguing for the sake of it, just giving my opinion that Schuamcher had lost some of his powers, namely his ability to adapt to a different car not in ideal conditions. That comes with age and happens to every race race driver. Lewis of 10 years ago would probably have adapted far better to the current car.

Valentino Rossi was the same in Moto GP.

I was listening to a podcast from Tomas Mezzera (czech v8 supercar driver) yesterday and he simply said that the pace is there, but its your ability to do everything else that diminishes as you get older in a race car. He referenced anti roll-bar adjustments as an example.
 
dinostar77 said:
When schmacher came back to F1 with Rosberg with his teammate, Schmacher had lost none of his reaction times in comparision to a young rosberg. The problem was the Mercedes at the time didnt suit Schumacher's driving style. He liked cars with a pointy front end which required a stable rear end. Seeing as the Mercedes back then was eating its rears like a true AMG road car, schmacher ended up looking average against Rosberg and people were saying he'd lost "it". Its similar to lewis at the moment, his differential to his teammates has always been the speed he can carry into a corner, brake later and get on the power earlier. He cant do that in a car as unstable as the current Mercedes but Russell can cope better with the current car. That doesn't mean he's lost "it". Its just the car currently doesnt suit his driving style.
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This is far too balanced and nuanced for the "Lewis is slow" simple posts.
 
That was an incredible pole position lap by LeClerc. However, I think RBR have the Race Car and they should overtake Ferrari at some point sadly. It's good to see Ferrari have this incredible consistency in qualifying. Time to take that one step further now.
 
Yeah that Ferrari is just unbeatable when it comes to one lap pace. Their race pace has been getting better too. Should be an interesting race.
 
mariachi-19 said:
Im not arguing for the sake of it, just giving my opinion that Schuamcher had lost some of his powers, namely his ability to adapt to a different car not in ideal conditions. That comes with age and happens to every race race driver. Lewis of 10 years ago would probably have adapted far better to the current car.

Valentino Rossi was the same in Moto GP.

I was listening to a podcast from Tomas Mezzera (czech v8 supercar driver) yesterday and he simply said that the pace is there, but its your ability to do everything else that diminishes as you get older in a race car. He referenced anti roll-bar adjustments as an example.
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Totto's input on the matter according to BBC.

Lewis Hamilton defended by Toto Wolff after Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has defended Lewis Hamilton after the seven-time champion was out-qualified by team-mate George Russell for the third consecutive race.

Hamilton qualified seventh for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, two places and 0.212 seconds behind Russell, who was 1.353secs adrift of the pole time set by Charles Leclerc's Ferrari.
Wolff said Hamilton had been trying out different set-ups on his car as the team try to get to the bottom of their performance problems.

"Lewis has been trying some quite experimental parts of the car and there was a different floor solution on his car that didn't work," Wolff said.

Wolff said that although Hamilton has now lost out to Russell in Spain, Monaco and Baku, it was "too early to identify a pattern".

Wolff said: "I am very close to it and I see one session one is faster and then next the other is. And because the car is on a knife edge, if you put a foot wrong, in terms of experiments on the car - which need to be done in order for us to learn how to perform and where to put the car - there is 0.2-0.3secs immediately between them.

"And the last three races these experiments have gone wrong with Lewis and not with
Russell is five-three ahead in the Mercedes' drivers qualifying head-to-head, but the score is three-all when only races in which a fair comparison is possible are taken into account, and then Hamilton is actually slightly faster on average.

Wolff said that in Baku Hamilton's car had a different set-up that was exacerbating the problems with bottoming with which Mercedes have been struggling this season.
 
Lewis seems to be messing around with his set up more than Russell or Mecedes are using his car has the test car
Russell looks to be in a happyish place, getting pace out of his car and is getting decent Ish results.
Lewis is in a horrible place with his, experimental parts that are not working, it will be frustrating for him ,he is used to a re he has confidence in.
He is used to a car that will do what he wants.
The one qualifying where they looked to have the right balance both cars were fast and pretty close to top
 
Apparently both lewis and george have backpain from yesterday. God knows how they will get through a GP. I think both Mercedes might retire as they will destroy their floors during the race.
 
dinostar77 said:
Apparently both lewis and george have backpain from yesterday. God knows how they will get through a GP. I think both Mercedes might retire as they will destroy their floors during the race.
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And as Toto Wolff says, they are closer to the back than the front of the grid.
Must be an awful car to drive.
 
dinostar77 said:
Apparently both lewis and george have backpain from yesterday. God knows how they will get through a GP. I think both Mercedes might retire as they will destroy their floors during the race.
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Back pain is just horrible, when it hits you, nothing you can do.
Somebody posted the other day about FIA getting involved (sorry forgot who) and at the time I disagreed, but thinking more about it, driver heath has to come in to it, both Merc drivers are going to take a beating today and with Canada next weekend, it will be a struggle for them.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Back pain is just horrible, when it hits you, nothing you can do.
Somebody posted the other day about FIA getting involved (sorry forgot who) and at the time I disagreed, but thinking more about it, driver heath has to come in to it, both Merc drivers are going to take a beating today and with Canada next weekend, it will be a struggle for them.
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I see your point, but at the same time I agree with the people saying it's mainly the Mercs struggling that hard. Others have bouncing as well, but Mercedes seems way more all over the place than the rest of the field. So it should be their responsibility regarding driver safety to bring the bouncing to the level of other (non-RB) teams before the FIA should step in
 
hellhunter said:
I see your point, but at the same time I agree with the people saying it's mainly the Mercs struggling that hard. Others have bouncing as well, but Mercedes seems way more all over the place than the rest of the field. So it should be their responsibility regarding driver safety to bring the bouncing to the level of other (non-RB) teams before the FIA should step in
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I also see your point and it is down to Mecedes to get it sorted.
They are stuck between a rock and a hard place, rise the ride hight loss speed or stay the same and damage the car/drivers.
 
I wonder what creative way Ferrari will screw over Leclerc today.
 
hellhunter said:
I see your point, but at the same time I agree with the people saying it's mainly the Mercs struggling that hard. Others have bouncing as well, but Mercedes seems way more all over the place than the rest of the field. So it should be their responsibility regarding driver safety to bring the bouncing to the level of other (non-RB) teams before the FIA should step in
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Sainz has also been complaining. As has Ocon and Alonso. Obviously drivers have their own vested interests in complaining.

Russell as head of drivers association has been particularly vocal that there is no need to run the floors so low to the ground and the fia should introduce a minimum ride height for all teams. Obviously if he was in a red bull he probably wouldnt be saying anything. Usual swings and roundabouts.

The biggest concern is that a driver could potentially be seriously injured or even killed as the bouncing at 200mph is so bad they cant make anything out on the track. Other non Mercedes drivers have said this as well. God knows what they will do at Canada as that surface is worse than Baku.
 
Dan said:
Sainz seems to be one raising the issue more than anyone else.

https://www.racefans.net/2022/06/12...to-tackle-very-painful-effects-of-porpoising/
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I asked this before, but if FIA do get involved, what do they do ?
Make all team rise their ride hight ? bring in active suspension ?
Making teams rise ride hight is unfair to teams that have got a handle on the bouncing, Red Bull for example.
Active suspension would seem like that obvious cure for all without affecting ride hight, but cost caps will stop teams developing this , will it not?
Its is clear that Mecedes have the most problems with the bouncing but other are not far behind.
 
Superb video btw, have to watch on youtube. Bloody fia. How suspension works on this years cars. Mick Schmachers crash had the unforseen bonus of allowing everyone to see the rear suspension setup of the haas (same as used by ferrari apparently). Normally its hidden from view but as the gear box detached from the rest of the car in monaco we got a look.

Now if only we could get to see RB and Mercedes rear suspension setups...

 
pauldyson1uk said:
I asked this before, but if FIA do get involved, what do they do ?
Make all team rise their ride hight ? bring in active suspension ?
Making teams rise ride hight is unfair to teams that have got a handle on the bouncing, Red Bull for example.
Active suspension would seem like that obvious cure for all without affecting ride hight, but cost caps will stop teams developing this , will it not?
Its is clear that Mecedes have the most problems with the bouncing but other are not far behind.
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The 18inch tyres are playing a part as well. The 13inch tyres were absorbing some of the impact of the tracks. Mass dampers would probably be the easier to introduce next season rather than fric or active suspension.

Honestly we need to see a RB have a crash similar to schmachers to see what RB have done with their rear suspension. Whatever the setup with the heave springs, torsion bars, rockers and dampers they have configured its working an absolute treat.
 
dinostar77 said:
The 18inch tyres are playing a part as well. The 13inch tyres were absorbing some of the impact of the tracks. Mass dampers would probably be the easier to introduce next season rather than fric or active suspension.

Honestly we need to see a RB have a crash similar to schmachers to see what RB have done with their rear suspension. Whatever the setup with the heave springs, torsion bars, rockers and dampers they have configured its working an absolute treat.
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Would love to see RB suspension set up.

WOW did Toto just say that Lewis might not be able to physical finish the race !!
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Starting the race will be fine, painkillers and some physio will be helping no doubt, I think Toto was more on about has the race goes on.
Bouncing around at 200 mph will be mental, I know my back would not stand it for a whole race.
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If he is not in a good shape that's a risk as the race goes on, even before he decides to retire.
 
Ferrari are going to get eaten on the straights, it will be 1 and 2 for RBR.
 
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