[NeilP]

This one post Austria by Andrew Shovlin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fhud_XwT1Q

[morini]

I know this is Benson (and he's a f*ckwit of the open class variety), but this a good read for a change.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/formula1...20%251%24s

[PapaofGags]

Yeah nice read, Toto's quite a fella, you must be quite excited with Mercedes entering FE next year Morini. 

"This was 20 engineers sitting in a room, all chanting "om"?"   What ever floats your boat.  

[NeilP]

"This was 20 engineers sitting in a room, all chanting "om"?"

I read this comment before I read the article (Which is excellent Morini) and my first thought was Mercedes Formula E team are having a meeting!!!!

I am not myself today, I am dying, I ate White Castle Burgers last night and have spent most the night dealing with one end or the other (or even both) ends of my body. I am pleased to inform you all White Castle do not exist in the UK... be grateful for small mercies!

[NeilP]

Re hash of the German GP by Andrew Shovlin. Always interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8rKVso1Jdg

[forzaferrari]

In a bid to find answers to its rival’s engine developments, Mercedes turns to its fuel supplier Petronas to boost their current spec engine.

Andy Holmes, head of research of the Malaysian oil company said that his group will chase more radical concepts as traditional avenues of fuel development have already been exhausted. In some respects, taking advantage of the grey area in FIA rulings, a loop-hole in the regs perhaps.

Holmes explains: “For us, what is critical at the moment is a pipeline of new ideas, new chemistries, and tuning the fuel properties to meet the challenges that are coming” says the engineer at Petronas’ Turin research facility.

According to Italian motorsport.com, this ‘trick’ fuel boosted the Mercedes at Hungary, helping Hamilton take victory. Indeed the publication claims that there will likely be a ‘chemical battle’ between the top teams in the second half of this season. Mercedes have joined the battle, using a new fuel to enrich the Phase 2 power unit that debuted in Canada.

According to the rumors that leaked from Brixworth, the contribution of the new petrol would have been of 18hp, a significant leap considering it was achieved only with chemical components and without requiring intervention on the power unit design engineers.

According to sources, it was necessary to revise the electronic mapping with new advances in favour of greater efficiency, which translated into an increase in performance, but also in the lower of fuel consumption. It seems that the secret blend of molecules that make up this new fuel are the result of a collaboration between Petronas and a small German laboratory that has developed a new synthetic fuel without breaking FIA rules, but capable of a distinct calorific value higher.

Shell had brought a new fuel for Ferrari that had given them advantages in Hockenheim. Mercedes reacted immediately, anticipating at the Hungaroring a gasoline that probably should have been a weapon to counter the Italian team at Spa and Monza, where, at least on paper, the SF90 should be the fastest.
@thejudge13

[forzaferrari]

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team has confirmed they have sacked 4 members and disciplined a further 3 of their formula one I.T team based in Brackley following what was deemed a "prolonged campaign of racism and bullying" towards other members of staff.
Mercedes-AMG said: “An internal investigation confirmed breaches of our diversity and equality policy and those in question have been dealt with"

[PapaofGags]

"prolonged campaign of racism and bullying" those in question have been dealt with"

Good, no place for any type of bullying.

[Jody Barton]

So, where do we think the Mercedes PU is relative to the Ferrari donkey now? For the benefit of NeilP, saying Ferrari have the better overall PU isn't writing Mercedes off, or disregarding what is still an amazing engine, it's just stating facts. I do think Ferrari have the best engine currently, despite Vettels retirement in Sochi. However, I have heard something very interesting, Williams and RP were told after Spa not to run the new Merc units in the two high performance modes, those intended for use in qualifying, and to run the third performance mode sparingly in qualifying while they work on issues. The third performance mode supposedly being the one available to teams during races. Could Merc have an issue that's limited their engines performance? Certainly an interesting thought, prior to Spa Mercedes were seemingly quietly confident their engine would give them what they needed to fight with Ferrari on the straights... then we had failure after failure. Prior to his engine going bang, Perez's times at Spa were scintillating, and the pink cars weren't a million miles away from the red cars in the speed traps. However, for now I think Mercedes have a clear deficit to Ferrari, for whatever reason.

[NeilP]

There was some discussion this week about Mercedes letting up on the season after their super fast start and Ferraris lack thereof. This is an excerpt from an Andrew Benson post today.

"We are somehow so eager to go well," Wolff said, "that this non-performance sits in our bones. But probably it is going to sink in overnight flying back to Europe."

If you needed an example of how Mercedes have established themselves as the greatest team in F1 history, that's it in a nutshell - the endless quest for better, for the next thing, what Wolff called in an interview with BBC Sport back in June "permanent scepticism, whether what we are doing is actually good enough".

To many on the outside, those remarks might almost sound ridiculous. This is a team who have dominated the era of F1 turbo-hybrid engines since 2014, won 86 of 117 races in the last five years and look in a strong position to go on next year and continue their winning streak. That's rather better than "good enough".

Knowing Wolff, and his constant quest for reinvention and the restlessness that is at the heart of his character, he was probably also thinking about the fact Mercedes have lost their engine performance edge to Ferrari this season. And that the car, while hugely successful this year, also has its flaws, particularly its high drag level, which is helping make it such a strong race car but is exaggerating Ferrari's advantage on the straights.

Hamilton, who shares Wolff's unquenchable desire for more, certainly was.

"It's not been a great year for us in terms of our engine development," Hamilton said. "It's been a really hard time for the guys. They've been working as hard as ever but it's just not been as successful in that department.

"Plus it's quite draggy but we've had great reliability and hopefully that remains the same and that's still something to be really proud of, of course.

"We have, obviously, still won the constructors' championship but we'll push to try and maybe reduce the drag a little bit but also increasing power for next year. So they're fully on to it and I have all the confidence in the world that we'll be able to make some sort of step into the next season."

Does not sound like they took it for granted to me but I guess we all have to make up our own minds.