I think an issue for all the Mercedes engined cars must be the weight of the power unit, none of the teams are apparently making it to the minimum weight on these new regs and all the ferrari and Honda engine cars seem to have taken a significant step up, all the mercs have gone backwards. Can't be a coincidence that.

CorsairHero

Canada9491 Posts

March 19 2022 15:22 GMT

#1984

Albon to Q2 wooooo

LennX

4572 Posts

March 19 2022 16:02 GMT

#1985

Leclerc POLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Bottas ahead of Russel lol

Ben...

Canada3485 Posts

March 19 2022 16:22 GMT

#1986

Those rumours about Mercedes struggling to get their engine sorted out with the move to E10 fuel must be true. All the Mercedes engine cars seemed slow. Ferrari in comparison seem to have a much better handle on things. At least one car from each Ferrari-powered team made Q3. Magnussen did amazing all things considered. P7 in his first qualifying in more than a year in a car with hydraulic problems. Hopefully they can get their issue sorted so he can race tomorrow. Albon did amazing given how poor that Williams has looked this weekend. He outqualified Latifi by almost a second. The McLaren looked awful. Ricciardo's onboard showed his car understeering constantly.

Bottas outqualifying Russell was pretty funny, as was Max's response when asked if he was sad Mercedes were off-pace.

Penev

28536 Posts

March 19 2022 16:24 GMT

#1987

Finally Ferrari is back! Enjoyable qualifying, if only Bottas would've managed to put his Alfa in front of the other Merc as well :o)

LennX

4572 Posts

March 19 2022 16:25 GMT

#1988

On March 20 2022 01:22 Ben... wrote:
Those rumours about Mercedes struggling to get their engine sorted out with the move to E10 fuel must be true. All the Mercedes engine cars seemed slow. Ferrari in comparison seem to have a much better handle on things. At least one car from each Ferrari-powered team made Q3. Magnussen did amazing all things considered. P7 in his first qualifying in more than a year in a car with hydraulic problems. Hopefully they can get their issue sorted so he can race tomorrow. Albon did amazing given how poor that Williams has looked this weekend. He outqualified Latifi by almost a second. The McLaren looked awful. Ricciardo's onboard showed his car understeering constantly.

Bottas outqualifying Russell was pretty funny, as was Max's response when asked if he was sad Mercedes were off-pace.

I will like to add that a reserve driver who was out for 2 years subbing in at the last minute and qualified ahead of the boss's son

CorsairHero

Canada9491 Posts

March 19 2022 16:30 GMT

#1989

Hulk out qualified stroll lol

Ben...

Canada3485 Posts

March 19 2022 17:25 GMT

#1990

On March 20 2022 01:25 LennX wrote:

I will like to add that a reserve driver who was out for 2 years subbing in at the last minute and qualified ahead of the boss's son

Oh wow I somehow didn't notice that.

Oof. That's gotta burn. Hulk hasn't raced in like a year and a half, almost two years, did zero testing beyond his sim work, and still beat Stroll. That's brutal.

FreakyDroid

Macedonia2616 Posts

March 19 2022 20:51 GMT

#1991

Im not too worried about Mercedes, Hamilton being 0.7 seconds behind P1 is quite a bit of a difference, but I think Merc will fix their issues in a month or two. They already improved their time from 1.5 seconds do to 0.7 compared to last week, so getting that last bit of performance will probably take a bit longer, but probably not too long.

Im more worried about McLaren though, their problems seem much bigger than those of Mercedes and there was no improvement from last weeks testing.

Excludos

Norway8278 Posts

March 19 2022 21:12 GMT

#1992

On March 20 2022 01:22 Ben... wrote:
Those rumours about Mercedes struggling to get their engine sorted out with the move to E10 fuel must be true. All the Mercedes engine cars seemed slow.

Slow in the corners. It's still a rocket ship on the straights. The issue with the Merc isn't the engine, but that they gave themselves a handicap by completely changing their car between testing 1 and 2.

Everyone had the same issues on testing 1, and then improved the concept of their car for testing 2, except for Mercedes who showed up with a completely different aero package, and then had to go through same issues in testing 2 as everyone else did in testing 1; still purposing and unpredictable.

Give them a few weekends to catch up and they'll be right at the top with Ferrari and RB

Ben...

Canada3485 Posts

March 20 2022 04:35 GMT

#1993

I was talking about the Mercedes engine, not the team. Mercedes themselves seem okay despite the engine, but all of their customer teams have been struggling for pace this weekend. There were rumours for a bit now that the switch to 10% ethanol fuel caused Mercedes a bunch of trouble and that this power unit has been somewhat compromised compared past units as a result.

It could also be simply that the Ferrari and Honda power units are better than in the past. Binotto did say that Ferrari has likely closed the 25HP gap Ferrari had to Mercedes and Honda last year. All 3 Ferrari-powered teams made Q3 as did the Honda teams and Alpine.

Excludos

Norway8278 Posts

March 20 2022 13:09 GMT

#1994

Again, as I said earlier, I don't think that's an issue as the Merc itself is still a rocket ship. But you're right in the McLaren and Williams aren't doing so hot atm.

Laurens

Belgium4558 Posts

March 20 2022 13:55 GMT

#1995

6 of my 7 fantasy drivers made it into Q3 yesterday, unfortunately I don't have any Ferrari drivers so despite getting 6 right I did relatively badly xd

After this race I imagine everyone who doesn't have Ferrari drivers will use one of their wildcards to get them lol, I know I will.

FreakyDroid

Macedonia2616 Posts

March 20 2022 15:07 GMT

#1996

What a start from Magnussen