Mercedes encouraged as Silverstone upgrade closes gap to Red Bull

2021 British Grand Prix

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Mercedes say the upgrade package they introduced at the British Grand Prix helped cut their deficit to Red Bull, but it is their last major step this year.

Several teams are ending their development programmes early this year to concentrate on their new cars for the 2022 F1 season, when overhauled technical regulations will be introduced.

The team’s technical director James Allison was pleased by the gains they saw from the new parts used at Silverstone. “We brought a decent aero package to the track, we definitely saw an improvement in our performance and we were very happy with it,” he said in a video released by the team.

“Whether the performance was a little bit more or a little bit less than we imagined is really hard to tell because you don’t get the luxury of performing a controlled experiment. You don’t run the old package and the new package several times doing back-to-back tests with fresh tyres each time, because the weekend just doesn’t give you that luxury.

“Nevertheless you do and are able to make some comparison because you make measurements on the car with all the sensors and you can compare back to the weekends before and look at the performance of the car before and compare to the one that you had this weekend and it did all seem to be behaving very well.

“If you then look at the stopwatch, you could seen that just relative to the field we had moved forward this weekend, we were able to close some ground on Red Bull and we were able to have a more competitive weekend as a result. So, we came home from the weekend pretty chipper about the upgrade.”

The team will only bring minor changes to its W12 over the remaining races, he added.

“Is there any more to come? There may be, here and there. But the vast, main industrial effort of our development programme, that was the last big package that we will bring this year.

“But there will be a few tweaks here and there where we can see efficiently that we can bring some performance without distracting us from the big effort that is now going into next year’s car.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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90 comments on “Mercedes encouraged as Silverstone upgrade closes gap to Red Bull”

  1. I was expecting Mercedes (even without the upgrades) to be faster at Silverstone as they had more than 1s advantage last year in both races.
    Thus no surprise that they were ahead; more surprised how close RBR (at least Verstappen) was.

    But then again, I did not expect an upgrade package to be fully optimised after 1 hour of free practice.

    Exciting season ahead.

    1. Comparing the second drivers I would think Mercedes is ahead of RBR with quite some margin

      1. If you take Perez’s Silverstone form, you aren’t exactly using a strong reference point.

      2. For sure, I dont even think the RB is close. Mercedes loves the underdog role now their main driver has come of age and cant keep up anymore

    2. jff Yet last year Max won one of the two Silverstone races. And, last weekend I wouldn’t say they (Mercedes) were ahead.

      @jamesbond Not sure what comparing the second drivers does, as the Championships are being lead by RBR, so how does that make Mercedes ‘ahead with quite some margin?’ But otherwise, sure, we have VB in his 5th year in what has been and is currently the reigning WCC car, doing his non-thing, and SP new to the team still finding his way and struggling at times, with great signs of getting on top of things here and there, including a win.

      1. Robbie, I’m especially surprised of this comment by you cause you’re a verstappen fan, don’t you think the reason red bull is ahead is that verstappen performed better than hamilton? Cause I think it’s undisputable, and then perez has had more subpar performances than bottas, which is why points are that close. However mercedes tends to more often have 2 drivers vs 1 ahead.

    3. The only reference is the sprintrace.

  2. Strengthen the car, so it can be used as a bumper car seems the most important “upgrade”. The announced one by toto is already realized.
    As aero concerns, the lower drag rear wing resulting I a higher speed on the straight looks more important. But it is always possible the engine had an upgrade too.

    1. RandomMallard (@)
      22nd July 2021, 9:37

      Oh please stop. I’m supporting Max in this championship but the constant disrespectful anti-Hamilton narrative coming both from the fanbase and from the team is getting tiring. Some of the comments (like accusations of attempted murder) are bordering on being libellous now…

      If you can’t respect two drivers giving us a great championship battle then I’m notnsure how you can really be a fan of the sport…

      1. It’s quite concerning the amount of crap comments/theories we get from the engrained myopic fans from both camps.
        This site needs an up/downvote functionality; I might even register.

        At least the guy who always votes for Raikkonen in the DotW keeps it clean and doesn’t ridicule his opponents.

        1. Well, he always votes raikkonen cause he’s convinced he’s the best driver ever, and that it was vettel’s fault that crash recently and so on.

          1. @esploratore1 If you talk about me please be man enough to tag me as well.

      2. Toxic comments is the reason crash.net shut down their comment section. I won’t surprised if Keith C is forced to take some harsh decision someday.

        1. but, unlike on other sites, these are pretty moderate and well argumented.
          On other sites sites there is a lot of name calling, little to none on this site.
          There are a few here who are trying to be as obnoxious as possible, but the percentage is very low

          1. To be honest, reddit seems much better than here lately, it’s not against the site owners, before it’s taken that way, I’m specifically talking about the comment section, I personally get less aggressive in reddit, and also on formula passion, an italian website, than here, because of what I read.

      3. Ah, that’s the problem with Internet. Sarcasm not always shows.
        I am just copying some “other fans” here in a ridiculous statement.

        1. RandomMallard (@)
          22nd July 2021, 12:09

          If that’s the case, I would recommend researching Poe’s Law and consider using it if you put a similar comment in the future. This comment sounds a bit malicious or “bossy”, I’m not trying to be, it could just be a way to make your comments more understood.

          1. Interesting indeed, but I think Poe’s Law goes a bit too far.
            There are situations were you can leave a sarcastic comment/parody entry without an emoticon/declaration. Part of the fun is that some readers won’t get it and others declare “ISWYDT”.
            Though you should stay far away from possibly ridiculing or offending others if they don’t get it.

          2. Follow snarky comment with a /s to denote it.

          3. Next time I will call it /f1trollosaurus mode.
            But maybe that is a bit to obvious.

      4. If Hamilton was Schumacher, the news outlets surrounding F1 would play a different tune. Look at the amount of articles Motorsport, Sky and others are churning out to keep Hamilton off the hook.

        1. What hooks that? He was penalised 10s and took the penalty. Is he on another hook that we don’t know about?

        2. Propaganda machine running day and night… And it works given the amount op people that still support the view Max is being aggressive and Lewis is flawless. Whilst the facts say Max didnt get a single penalty point the last 2 years and Lewis racked up 12! But hey, if you just keep looking the other way..

      5. As Max fan (But also Lewis) i agree with you, the contact made lewis look like a amateur but these things happen. Max is already over it and plans to win the next one!

      6. Well at MB they have been busy from race1 till now to tell everybody RB are cheating. So 2 weeks of returning the favour is not Thatcher bad at all.

        1. That bad at all

      7. I don’t respect someone giving me a ‘great championship battle’ by getting two incredibly lucky red flags, winning a race by selective track limits enforcement, then another by punting his opponent into the wall in an incredibly amateur move. Reality is an ‘anti-hamilton narrative’

        1. Absolutely, this is not a great championship battle when you put it that way, however I’m not sure merc won’t just compete with red bull from now on performance wise, we’ll see, mostly track dependant I think.

    2. Meh…

    3. Ahah, that’s very true.

  3. petebaldwin (@)
    22nd July 2021, 11:02

    I’m not so sure… The changes have allowed them to run with less drag so they are back to being very quick in a straight line which is good as the narrative about Honda making a huge performance upgrade mid-season can be put to bed now.

    I think most of us expected them to be fast at Silverstone as they usually are but on on race pace, it seemed like Red Bull still just about had the edge over Mercedes. Max was comfortable in the sprint race and Hamilton’s desperation to get past him suggested he knew he had to get a move done quickly on the Sunday race or Max would pull away.

    Really looking forward to seeing how things play out in Hungary.

    1. @petebaldwin I agree. RBR will be encouraged that Mercedes’ upgrade only brought them closer to them, and at Silverstone no less. Max had strange understeer, and LH had a tow in qualifying and only just squeaked the Sprint pole, then Max smoked him in the Sprint race, and was leading when LH took him out in the race itself. I’m sure RBR will be wary of Mercedes as usual, but worried? I doubt it. And of course they’re always learning and tweaking too.

      1. True that, I’m curious about hungary, usually merc have been strong there, but there’s also been some good performances from ferrari and red bull in recent years, example 2017: ferrari best car, 2018 they were probably up there but hamilton managed to stay ahead thanks to a good performance in quali in the rain, 2019 red bull best car on 1 lap and not lacking much to merc, 2020 red bull good enough to beat bottas.

  4. +1 it was actually a bit scary how quick the RedBull was in the sprint race. Max didn’t look to be pushing at all and when Hamilton attempted to close the gap which fell from 1.8 to 1.2 Verstappen responded and it went up to 2.8 by the next lap. Incredible speed. Hungry will be an utter domination for RedBull as like you say, it looks like Mercedes are running less downforce which won’t be an option in Hunrgy. Spa and some of the others towards the end of the season will be interesting, although RedBull always end the season off well.

    1. Ham does have one chance at the start or through the first couple of corners. So hopefully as spicy as at Silverstone.

      1. Had Hamilton made as good a start in the sprint race as he did in the Sunday race he would have won the sprint, with Max unable to overtake. You could say Ham’s bad sprint start was the cause of Sunday’s contretemps. All of which portends well for the rest of Ham’s year.

        1. If Hamilton did not made the error in copse the results would have been diffferent.

    2. @ben:
      Did you realise that in Silverstone, the Mercs were running a low downforce rear wing than the red bull, right?
      So it’d be interesting to see if both teams go for a high downforce configuration in the next race and how their pace will compare.
      In silverstone, the Mercs were quicker on the straights because of the less wing at the back whilst the red bull was quicker in the corners because of more wing at the back.
      If (and it’s a big if) the Merc’s upgrade has improved the car’s inherent downforce (coupled with the fact that they have time and data to fine-tune the upgrade package), then it’d be interesting to see how they will stuck up against the bulls when both teams run a high downforce rear wing / set-up in Hungary…

  5. Seemed they were still struggling though. Does anyone know what the upgrades were?
    Red bull certainly pulled away from them in the sprint race.

  6. Maybe they have to strengthen their flexi front wing. Although…. are the FIA still investigating it and writing a new technical directive?

    1. Well I know Horner has been mouthing off about it every time a camera gets within a 100 feet of him, but has RB actually made a complaint to the FIA, or is this just the usual RB we might, only for them to say after milking it for everything it’s worth that t “they won’t for the good of the sport”?

  7. Why does the UK media copy Mercedes narrative/lies? Just because there is an UK guy driving for them? How bizar that nowhere else in the world this behavior is seen. There is no gap to RB. When did checo finish in front of the Mercedesses? Baku? Ham would have won that too if he didnt (carefully choosing words) accidentally brush a setting. Without Max RB would be fighting with Ferrari and McLaren tops and would be nowhere near both Mercedes cars. Seriously, just state that Hamilton is god and the only ruler of F1 or accept that he simply isnt the best around anymore but has had great material so he will go down as the best. Instead of letting his records speak for itself there is this relentless need to talk up Hamilton. My theory is to defend the attack on his many titles being too much credited to the car. Lewis is being addressed with the same question. That must feel hard for an athlete. And his fans (which I once was).

    1. @Mayrton

      many drivers racing in f1 said it is racing incident (they re not british media). even albon was trying his best to keep red bull interest couldnt say harsh words…

      see what kimi says about max.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Li5w5BqIU

      what max was still is max! he doesnt change and kimi said it perfectly, there is gonna be big accident!

        1. @Smurfler
          He hasnt seen max yet, or he wasnt feeling well probably watching through some different video?

          webber vs ham: very slow aquaplaning in the very wet conditions, webber taking tighter corner against inside ham, and ham hitting a wet patch minor aquaplanning, if you watch it, you can see everyone who touches that wet patch gets minor unsettle!

          ham vs button: ham overtaking and on the side of button on a straight, there is no reason why button should go that way, what happened to living space for a car along side? it is not even a corner, let alone anywhere close to it?

          both actions is in this video
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL2cPQ5L4Qw

          tell me where ham is “dangerously closing the door on someone? where is he trying to kill someone? button incident was totally ridiculous to say the least as noone goes that much to the side of the track ham only did to overtake! button never went there before or anyone else for that matter

          unfortunate comment from nikki, probably an emotional one at the time… if he thought ham was trying to get someone killed, why did you seek ham to sign for his team?

          one wonders what you were smoking making comment about hospitals?

          so people taking avoiding action against max to live another day are silly? max is brave? but when people act like max, they are silly for not avoiding it? but max is a victim? nice pipe u guys are smoking.

          max is very lucky he didnt have a serious injury until now with that driving!

          also let me fix your logic metrics (or better say your false positive statement):

          avoiding a collision to live another day (and not need to visit a hospital – your logic fixed)
          max: < 0 (hard brave racer)
          ham: ~(1000 – 1) (a soft scared racer)?

        2. @Smurfler

          also you are enjoying the schmuck comments and nikki’s words… there was coultard’s comments too a more current era racer at the time… also the webber/ham and ham/button incidents were deemed racing incident noone got any penalty or warnings…

          nowadays we still see the very old drivers giving very silly comments sometimes to stir up things sometimes to make headlines and turn spotlights to shine on them… jackie steward comes to mind, who hates ham for whatever reason, and always says silly things about lewis for no reason at all other than some inner issues…

          neither accidents were serious, also for ham->>(sour)massa was too much of an issue that year. massa constantly messing with ham to the point his engineer was chanting “lets destroy ham’s race” at some point… ham had ups and downs that year more than any other but i dont remember any of the incidents were nikki’s exaggerated levels. most of them were with massa, and for a reason!

          majority of max’s incident are high speed involved, and people around him been cautionary with him for too long… almost every driver had bad experience with max, and had a lot of choice words for him…

      1. Nice opinion, and probably true.
        But the cause of the accident was not max.

        1. That’s right, he was predominantly at fault. So remind us again who was the other person that took the ‘fully’ away from Ham? Just a name will do. You don’t need to go into a full page diatribe that deals with everything other than the question being posed.

          1. Probably Ericsson then.

          2. where is palmer?

      2. @mysticus Lol to the 5 year old video when Max was 18. He’s come a long way since then, to Championship leader, while LH is the one making the mistakes, including ones that have penalized him and given him demerit points.

        1. Then check this video: https://youtu.be/7hNU6z3LCS4?t=62
          It explains everything about his ‘take no prisoners’ demeanour, which Kimi was probably referring to.

          1. jff Lol that was great.

            Joking aside, what Kimi was talking about in 2016, and what Max was slapped on the wrist for and hasn’t done since, was moving over on a guy who has already committed under braking. That leaves the guy braking handcuffed to do anything, and is something that is just not to be tolerated. Max was still 18, a month away from 19, at that point, and he was told what he was doing wrong, and he hasn’t done it since.

          2. @robbie
            “he was told what he was doing wrong, and he hasn’t done it since.”
            you’re funny :)

            he just did it in the race right before the accident, last corner, he kamikazed, then moved to cut ham off, he saw ham, hesitated for a split sec but decided to continue expecting ham to get off the throttle…
            better fair/unbiassed analysis here from a reputable person.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enVOLoPzfrE

            long story short, what max was still max is… no ifs or buts…

            he done it in spain, he done it imola, he done it in sprint, he done it at first corner, and last corner…
            hard racing is one thing but blatantly claiming LH is making mistakes? Penalty is farce! Ham received many penalties doesnt mean he deserved it, it is just stewards are doing some of these penalties to spice up the championship…
            it is funny how redbul is burning midnight oils to find/dig evidence to get ham penalized since forever… now even more so due to their competitiveness…
            instead of calming max to live another day, redbull bosses just uttering complete rubbish even fueling racism…
            ham has been giving max space for far too long, and everyone was saying ham turned too soft…

            “That leaves the guy braking handcuffed to do anything, and is something that is just not to be tolerated.”
            he has done it to his team mate, did it to vettel, did it kimi again… he has done these until now… ham has been real soft with him, but there is a point where enough is enough, and i think ham made the point fine.

            And if you think MAX changed, we will see very soon… if max is anything, he will do even worse moves… but hope i m wrong and you are right!

          3. @mysticus No you are in a big rant that is way over the top (fueling racism is utter rubbish) and you are also not comparing the same types of things to what happened with Kimi when Max was 18.

          4. I don’t understand the point of the kart racing video, didn’t he dominate the race? I don’t see anything involving wheel to wheel battling.

          5. @robbie
            Ok sorry my apples doesn’t look anything like your pineapples apologies to all knowing non ranting unbiased..
            Max 18yrs old didn’t change we are just imagining, he is totally fair game… His signature blocking and dive bombing is totally made up by non max fans… Max is the only true racer who doesn’t do such imaginery moves and doesn’t get away with them for so long… Totally you re right… And everyone saying otherwise totally missing the point.

          6. @mysticus You’re being ridiculous.

          7. 2016. Really?

          8. @robbied
            Thanx for being funny then

        2. @robbie since you answered mysticus and saw the video, maybe did you understand the point he was making about the karting race? I saw no battles at all, looks like he dominated, hence I don’t see the point.

          1. @esploratore1 No I didn’t understand the point of the video nor the bulk of his comment.

          2. @esploratore1 it is normal to not understand a video i didnt post… i dont know what you guys really smoking or what kind of tinfoil hats you are wearing… you guys must be great at parties laughing eachothers’ yokes!

          3. @mysticus: aha, ops, I saw robbie and another person were arguing, and the other person posted a video I didn’t understand, and since he then said “you’re being ridiculous” I thought it was you posting the video, it was jff! Also, never smoked!

            https://youtu.be/7hNU6z3LCS4?t=62

          4. That is the video we were talking about and that jff posted ofc, unless he meant verstapppen ran off into the distance I don’t see why it draws comparisons with silverstone 2021 or spa 2016.

      3. I think they mean this as in ‘it wasn’t intentional’ not ‘both drivers are to blame’ also why would they stick their nose in that fight

      4. Dont believe the propaganda. Facts: Max penalty points the last 2 years: 0 (Lewis: 12).

    2. Are you referring to media owned by those who live in the uk, owned by uk citizens, or owned by anyone but counts the uk as one of its publishing targets.

      We hear a lot from people like you about the uk media, with little details about who or what this incredibly powerful force actually are that can swing championships with a cunningly edited video or who destroy careers with a word. If your problem is simply bias, (as you will inevitably claim after I point out that the list of people you give are all one religion/race of people and there are laws against that) have you read Spanish/Italian/Dutch media? German swings from being biased to neutral better than most, but I can’t help to feel that the real thing here is you parroting what Ferrari said, without any understanding of why they said it.

      1. English is the lingua franca, virtually all f1 anglophone media personnel are British (most English), so they have an outsized influence. It’s only annoying with lewis because he’s had the best car for seven years straight and has had more success than he ‘deserves’ and Mercedes has been treated very well by the fia in a manner unprecedented for a dominant team. Even the biggest Hamilton fan should be able to admit hes not eighty wins better than Alonso, and that the fia hasn’t been nearly as aggressive as they were against early 00s Ferrari or even early 2010s rb

      2. Its a huge propaganda machine. I will quote some one else’s comment to illustrate: ‘I haven’t seen a single British journalist mention the fact that Verstappen is the only driver on the grid who has zero penalty points in the last two years, while Hamilton has 12 in the same timespan. This has never been mentioned because it goes against the desired narrative. Instead, “Verstappen is aggressive” is repeated to ad-nauseam as an underhanded strategy to lower empathy from fans towards Verstappen.This is actually very fascinating because it shows exactly how propaganda works.”

  8. @mysticus

    Hmmm, what did Nikki say about Lewis back in 2011 again……..?

    What Lewis was still is Lewis! He doesnt change and Nikki said it perfectly, there is gonna be big accident!

    Drivers send to hospital:
    Max – 0
    Lewis – 0

  9. Mercedes needs a stronger front wing for sure if Silverstone trend continues.

    1. Don’t think so, when is the last time hamilton had the worst consequences from a contact, spa 2014? He seems immune.

      1. You have got to give that to him. He sure gets away with a lot. Lady luck is certainly no stranger in his life.

  10. Rodric Ewulf
    22nd July 2021, 17:16

    I pretty much doubt that if Lewis had successfully completed his pass on Max and not pressed incautious mode button sending his arch-rival into the barriers the leading Red Bull would have enough pace to overtake the leading Mercedes on-track without significant tyre advantage. Even though it wouldn’t certainly disappear into distance, the strategy could come into play for th victory, even if Mercedes are slightly behind Red Bull in raw pace (we saw the opposite of the situation described before in Paul Ricard, and Vesrtappen/Red Bull were able to score a narrow win, why not Hamilton/Mercs couldn’t reach it even if facing a small deficit? Lewis should have the ability to pull this out as the greatest multiple champion wannabe GOAT). So the fight is pretty much on regardless of what pessimistically spoiled fans might say. Max has made the most with his machinery so far this season, even being clearly not perfect, but he still was more regularly there for the big points than Lewis, who failed to finish on the podium due to self-inflicted trouble three times already this season (Monaco, Baku and Austria II) without even mention striking luck saving him from his own misfortune a few times.

    1. Rodric Ewulf
      22nd July 2021, 17:44

      What I am stating is based on the fact that, in the sprint race, when the two title contenders were racing incident-free the leading Red Bull could not pull a gap to the chasing Mercedes bigger than a margin in which the undercut is possible. No team can be called even close to dominant if his best driver just can’t be ahead of opposition with a comfortable gap during 17 laps, that is close to the pit stops window.

      1. Absolutely true, however red bull looked slightly faster on the medium tyres in the sprint race, we’d have had to see the performance on the hard tyres, since, as the race showed, merc wasn’t faster than a good driver on a ferrari on the medium but faster on hard.

  11. Forget qualifying or sprints, draw lots to have the Red Bull’s and the Mercedes start P1 to P4. Can’t have a dull start regardless of those positions.

  12. How do they even know? We’ve seen them race half a lap. Looked to me Mercedes wasn’t that fast on sunday. A few months ago they were putting Ferrari’s on a minute or more. Bottas wasn’t even able to get close to the Ferrari.

    1. They’re talking about the sprint, that was far more than 1 lap!

    2. But indeed, ferrari did well, but I think it’s more they closed the gap a bit than that mercedes weren’t as fast as usual.

    3. They dont need to know. It doesnt have to be a fact either. Its the battle of their PR machine

  13. Didn’t really, though, did it? Despite Merc’s upgrades and positive step, Red Bull Honda themselves are developing and keeping ahead. Merc had to shave off more downforce than they would have liked, so weren’t as comfortable on tyre deg. Absent the DNF, VER probably takes another fairly comfortable victory. Merc aren’t going to outdevelop the masters of development and will need Red Bull to fluff their lines if they are to retain either of their crowns.

    We will know soon enough whether Merc have actually made any inroads. If they were to genuinely push Red Bull hard at a circuit like the upcoming Hungaroring, where the latter are expected to dominate, their optimism would be justified.

    It has to be said that Merc, by their unprecedentedly high standards, have lost their way in going from the fastest ever car, in W11, to the current state of affairs. It is even more puzzling given they shifted focus to W12 development as early as August 2020.

    Hard to see anything but VER roaring back to his clinical best and clinching his maiden WDC with races to spare. The ill fortune of his two “innocent” DNfs contrasts with HAM’s being saved by red flags twice to score major points instead of not scoring at all. VER has lost at least 2 wins through no fault of his own while HAM has been gifted 44 WDC points through fortuitous red flags. The real state of play is VER’s having led 403 laps (=64.27%) to HAM’s 125 (=19.94%) thus far this season.

    1. Races to spare? I just don’t see it. He didn’t even have a reliability issue yet (tyres aren’t considered reliability), don’t forget merc is usually more reliable than red bull.

      And to recover a 25-0 like in this race, you need 3 wins (assuming hamilton fails at getting 2nd one race).

      As for hungary, red bull and ferrari have been relatively strong in recent years, but hamilton is also strong there and mercedes still won the last 4 races, I’d be surprised if red bull dominated that.

    2. As for the laps led stat, true, it’s impressive.

  14. Chris Horton
    22nd July 2021, 21:34

    Yeah. They said no upgrades earlier this season, then they brought an upgrade.

    Sick of hearing this Mercedes tripe. Can’t believe a single word they say.

    1. Indeed, stop being deceived and just, when you see something that seems amiss from merc (no upgrades, not fastest etc.) ignore them.

    2. I truly start to believe there is a cultural difference which is not addressed here. Merc seem to be of the school: all is fair in competition, also use of means of track, mind games, media games, lies, holding back etc. Whereas others are more naive and want to have a great sport season and have an overall good competitive time and then battle it out on the track (more like an olympics mindset so to say). Once you realise Mercedes approaches it like this and their fans (& probably customer base) love it too, the comments on this forum make total sense. Anything they state that isnt true can simply be justified with ‘yeah, but its a tactic’

  15. Only a fool would think that Red Bull is going to dominate this season, the gaps between leading drivers factoring out incidents are enough proof of that. More likely there will be some swings in momentum along the season, as it’s increasingly looking like 2006 with Renault/Alonso vs. Schumacher/Ferrari. And guess who is the Dick Dastardly this time round?

  16. What gap to RedBull? Is Perez significantly faster than Lewis or even Bottas? Mercedes using media to gain any advantage they can exploit…

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