AdoubleU24
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Super casual F1 viewer here, so please excuse me, but what's the deal with Mercedes? Do they even know what the issue is?
2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
- Thread starter FLRacingFan
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Marcingak
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Michael Masi hacked into Mercedes computers and gave them misleading information about the regulations for this year.
Kiante
Team Owner
Missed on the new regs, so far.
AdoubleU24
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Pretty bizarre for as much money and resources they have. Inexcusable really.
Kiante
Team Owner
New playing field for everyone, there is a budget "cap" as well.
Seems like Red Bull and Ferrari have nailed it, so far.
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
Red Bull and Ferrari seem to have better engines this year, but the real problem is the Mercedes chassis.
The car is rhythmically jumping up and down on it's suspension, or "porposing," and bottoming out on the track, Most of the teams suffered with this, nut have also solved it. Mercedes seems to be able to only make it worse.
This is mostly at terminal velocity, so you are going into a braking zone with the car a critically unstable condition. Not only does it beat the crap out of the driver, but all that scraping on the road scrubs off a lot of speed. With the car being so unstable entering corners, and scraping speed off on the road, you can't see why the drivers don't have any confidence in the car. They will get it right, but Toto told apologized to Lewis over the radio for giving him an "undrivable" car.
Unsaid is the danger that the driver could lose control (or even be knocked out) or something on the car could break. Mostly everyone has tried to play the danger down, partially because most of the teams had porposing and fixed it.
Look at the driver's head. The in-car camera has video stabilization, so that hides how bad it is. You can still see how severe it is by how the driver's head is getting bounced around.
Greg
2014 RF YAHOO CHAMP Your leader
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I couldn't help but noticing that the Mascedes misinformation data initiative was directed more toward Hamilton than Russell this weekend.
The slower car, cannot pass supression placed upon the GOAT was just more evident. It is like some force is at work to make it look like Russell is faster than the GOAT.
It just cant be.
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
Russell said this is the first week where he’s been dealing with back and chest pains from the porpoising. Doesn’t seem to be getting any better at all for them. They lost their massive PU advantage over Honda last year and this year Ferrari have caught and surpassed them as well.
Big upgrade package wouldn’t come until Barcelona I’m guessing.
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
I believe that's what Toto said.
Why not roll the dice and try the Barcelona sidepod again? They can do that at the next race. Try it on one of the cars in FP1. It's not like they have a lot to lose but it could be an answer.
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
I think most of the teams bring a chiropractor with them, and probably a massage therapist.
I remember in 1982 the drivers were complaining how badly the cars rode and how they would beat the drivers senseless. Gilles Villeneuve was especially vocal about how rough the cars were. They were running the cars so stiff to keep them from bottoming that they had next to no suspension movement, and that pounded the drivers. Worth noting is that none of the drivers complained when the ground effects cars went away.
F1 never really solved the porposing issue. F1 just moved to flat bottoms and the problem didn't surface again until these new cars.