Official 2021 Styrian and Austrian GP thread **SPOILERS**

[Exige77]

sparta6 said:

TheDeuce said:

.. but so long as red bull are superior or continuing to develop their car - Mercedes will do the same. At least for as long as they're in contention for the titles.

Red Bull superiority ?
Until we see a long run of front-row lockouts this is not the case.
I suspect viewers will be waiting a long time to see 76 front-row lockouts from Red Bull.

Only having Lewis in the car is making the Mercedes look competitive.

[sparta6]

Exige77 said:

sparta6 said:

TheDeuce said:

.. but so long as red bull are superior or continuing to develop their car - Mercedes will do the same. At least for as long as they're in contention for the titles.

Red Bull superiority ?
Until we see a long run of front-row lockouts this is not the case.
I suspect viewers will be waiting a long time to see 76 front-row lockouts from Red Bull.

Only having Lewis in the car is making the Mercedes look competitive.

The Mercedes is a contender and Hamilton's doing a decent job with it.

[rdjohn]

Exige77 said:

Only having Lewis in the car is making the Mercedes look competitive.

I think you are correct.

Last year, Mercedes had the perfect machine for keeping the tyres alive at both ends. No DAS, loss of floor area at the rear messing up their low-rake theory, heavier slower tyres now with increased pressures - these all tend to mess-up their 2020 design philosophy.

The test in in Bahrain showed-up all their weaknesses. To their credit they have made some good compromises, but when you look at head-on photos from last weekend you can see the RB rear wing has a much lower profile QED they are getting significantly more out of their diffuser and working their PU less hard.

Lewis is pretty good at managing tyres in all conditions, Valtteri less so. They are driving a compromised chassis, and it shows - yet still the best of the rest, and by some margin.

By copying the Mercedes last year, AM have fallen further down the wormhole, but their performance this year does highlight the design deficiencies.

[paulw123]

These next two races will really give a indication to which way the championship is heading. Fingers crossed for some rain.

[honda_exige]

Sandpit Steve said:

Not sure they expected to do any work on this year’s car at all, after they’d delivered it to testing back in March.

They already had everyone on the ‘22 car, and they’ve now realised they’re going to have to drag resources back to the ‘21 car as they’ve got a title fight on their hands.

What’s definitely true, is that the budget cap is annoying the hell out of them. They’ve never before needed to operate under such constraints. They got upset with someone taking their car out of the race, not just because they lost a handful of points, but because it cost them a million quid to rebuild the car!

They also have the largest workforce and iirc the best paid on average, potentially meaning they are most at risk of being crippled by unforseen expenditure. Hence why RB are making noises about the Merc front wings, they'd be forced to spend a chunk redesigning them.

[HustleRussell]

I was really expecting Paul Ricard to play to Mercedes strengths and take some momentum out of the Verstappen WDC charge.

However, and I hate to agree with Horner- if Red Bull can beat Mercedes in France then it’s on for the rest of the season.

I can’t tell you what the strengths are of the Mercedes over the Red Bull anymore. The Red Bull still seems to have neck-snapping change of direction but without the mid-corner instability and straight line speed deficit.

[honda_exige]

HustleRussell said:

I was really expecting Paul Ricard to play to Mercedes strengths and take some momentum out of the Verstappen WDC charge.

However, and I hate to agree with Horner- if Red Bull can beat Mercedes in France then it’s on for the rest of the season.

I can’t tell you what the strengths are of the Mercedes over the Red Bull anymore. The Red Bull still seems to have neck-snapping change of direction but without the mid-corner instability and straight line speed deficit.

Only caveat to that would be the way lower than expected temps we had at Paul Ricard. Normally the hotter it gets the better the Mercs are and we haven't had any proper hot races as of yet. Paul Ricard was warm but track temps were low as no direct sunlight.

[SturdyHSV]

honda_exige said:

HustleRussell said:

I was really expecting Paul Ricard to play to Mercedes strengths and take some momentum out of the Verstappen WDC charge.

However, and I hate to agree with Horner- if Red Bull can beat Mercedes in France then it’s on for the rest of the season.

I can’t tell you what the strengths are of the Mercedes over the Red Bull anymore. The Red Bull still seems to have neck-snapping change of direction but without the mid-corner instability and straight line speed deficit.

Only caveat to that would be the way lower than expected temps we had at Paul Ricard. Normally the hotter it gets the better the Mercs are and we haven't had any proper hot races as of yet. Paul Ricard was warm but track temps were low as no direct sunlight.

I get the impression the Mercs (or at very least the one with Lewis doing the peddling) are easier on the tyres, so I'm sort of expecting more results like Barcelona where Red Bull are competitive on pace but can't maintain it as long as Mercedes, giving MB more strategic options or simply the better pace over the full race distance.

For me, Perez is the one that will (or won't...) win RB the WCC, whether it's Lewis or Max getting the WDC is going to be very exciting, I don't think Max will have any issues with pressure or excessive mistakes, but Lewis just always seems to find a way to maximise the points he can take away from every race, no matter what happens (except Baku... ), and I think it'll be something like that which decides the WDC.

[Derek Smith]

honda_exige said:

HustleRussell said:

I was really expecting Paul Ricard to play to Mercedes strengths and take some momentum out of the Verstappen WDC charge.

However, and I hate to agree with Horner- if Red Bull can beat Mercedes in France then it’s on for the rest of the season.

I can’t tell you what the strengths are of the Mercedes over the Red Bull anymore. The Red Bull still seems to have neck-snapping change of direction but without the mid-corner instability and straight line speed deficit.

Only caveat to that would be the way lower than expected temps we had at Paul Ricard. Normally the hotter it gets the better the Mercs are and we haven't had any proper hot races as of yet. Paul Ricard was warm but track temps were low as no direct sunlight.

It shows that the RB's got the pace to beat Merc, even in the hands of Lewis. It's not only the temps I think, but the tyre pressure increase. That said, Merc tactics were every bit as influential at the temps and pressures. Whether the win was there or not is open to argument I suppose. I think there's a little bit of playing to the gallery and needling Toto from all of Horner's statements.

[mk1coopers]

Might have been a different result last week if Bottas had kept Max behind for a couple of laps, or if Mercedes had pulled the trigger and tried to undercut RB with Lewis (or both of them) still onwards to Austria and lets hope that Mercedes have a cunning plan to out fox RB, even if it's splitting the strategy / running the cars in different specs

[SturdyHSV]

mk1coopers said:

...and lets hope that Mercedes have a cunning plan to out fox RB...

Speak for yourself, I want RB to win 'em both and see Merc fire Bottas mid season for Russell

[London424]

mk1coopers said:

Might have been a different result last week if Bottas had kept Max behind for a couple of laps, or if Mercedes had pulled the trigger and tried to undercut RB with Lewis (or both of them) still onwards to Austria and lets hope that Mercedes have a cunning plan to out fox RB, even if it's splitting the strategy / running the cars in different specs

Or just pit lewis straight after Bottas and it would have been a fairly straightforward 1 stop.

[Sandpit Steve]

mk1coopers said:

Might have been a different result last week if Bottas had kept Max behind for a couple of laps, or if Mercedes had pulled the trigger and tried to undercut RB with Lewis (or both of them) still onwards to Austria and lets hope that Mercedes have a cunning plan to out fox RB, even if it's splitting the strategy / running the cars in different specs

They should have pitted Bottas either as soon as he started droppping back, or the lap after Max. Once RB split their strategies, they should have done the same.

Also fair play to Perez, who pitted late on one stop, then ran to the delta times and didn’t worry about those fighting in front of him.

The Mercs screwed up by trying to stay out, having trashed the hard tyres in their first few laps. Annoyingly for the drivers, they both called it on the radio and were ignored by the team.

Their last problem was the overtake on Bottas by Perez, who clearly did run off the track to do it.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=aYDFq0qHpvA
The race director should really have told RB to give the place back, but he didn’t so Mercedes protested to the stewards. They’d have been better off calling him in, to take the fastest lap from MV, especially when Perez quickly pulled the five seconds which was the likely penalty.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

paulw123 said:

These next two races will really give a indication to which way the championship is heading. Fingers crossed for some rain.

[Jasandjules]

This circuit usually delivers and this year given how close things are I expect it will be a stonking race... (or two)

[exelero]

SturdyHSV said:

mk1coopers said:

...and lets hope that Mercedes have a cunning plan to out fox RB...

Speak for yourself, I want RB to win 'em both and see Merc fire Bottas mid season for Russell

I’m sure that will happen. Would be an unexpected move, but I can’t wait for it to happen

[Flooble]

mk1coopers said:

Might have been a different result last week if Bottas had kept Max behind for a couple of laps, or if Mercedes had pulled the trigger and tried to undercut RB with Lewis (or both of them) still onwards to Austria and lets hope that Mercedes have a cunning plan to out fox RB, even if it's splitting the strategy / running the cars in different specs

Exactly, however, Max had 2 laps to pull off his overtake. Four DRS opportunities. So realistically Bottas would have had to perform some sort of magic to keep Max behind him for two entire laps. Seems like a tall order, even if he hadn't outbraked himself on the straight where he did lose it, Max would have swept past on the next straight instead. You only have to look at the size of the Mercedes' rear wing compared with the Red Bull one to realise that straight-line speed is not in Mercedes' favour this year.

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Impressive to have a temperature warning and rain at the same time.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Flooble said:

Impressive to have a temperature warning and rain at the same time.

Par for the course in Europe’s mountainous regions, hot for three days and then storm!

God I miss it.

[HighwayToHull]

Bit of rain would be nice.

(Well anything would be nice as long as it's not the usual Merc 1-2 borefest.)

[paulguitar]

HighwayToHull said:

(Well anything would be nice as long as it's not the usual Merc 1-2 borefest.)

Guess you've not been watching this season!