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A developing subplot around Mercedes' struggles is the future of Hamilton, and his designs on becoming the sport's first driver to win eight world championships. Any new car concept is most likely going to be something arriving for 2024, so the question is how soon does Mercedes switch off work on the current car? Mercedes-Benz Group (MBG) produces hundreds of thousands such vehicles a year from eight German factories: Rastatt is one of three in the state of Baden-Württemberg, near the company’s physical and spiritual home in Stuttgart. The carmaker lends its name to a whole area of this affluent city – the Benzviertel, where its headquarters and museum are located – and to its Bundesliga football club’s stadium.
Formula One is so successful because it is sport and we follow the rulebook and that gives great entertainment, as long as it is clear how it is being interpreted. Whether you call a VSC or a safety car or you red‑flag it, as long as we understand in terms of us being able to plan and in having the same rules for everyone, then that is OK.”
While just about every team suffered to some level, Mercedes' issues were the most severe, and heavily impacted the performance of their W13, along with the comfort of their drivers. On his pace throughout the weekend, he added: "I think in practice the pace was there, there was just a couple of big mistakes in every lap. I went into qualifying and I hadn't done a clean lap all weekend so I made life a bit more difficult for myself. Q1 messy, Q2 I got it together finally and it was pretty good in Q3. Happy with that just close but not quite close enough." It was therefore a major surprise when it became clear they had been caught out by the new regulations and were suffering - more than any other team - with porpoising, a bouncing phenomenon that was an unexpected consequence of the way the 2022 cars had been designed under the new rules. The reduced degradation and extended tyre life resulted in the optimum race strategy changing from the pre-race prediction of a medium and hard plan, to a soft and medium combination.
READ MORE: Red Bull and Ferrari are ‘too far ahead' says Russell as Mercedes end Friday practice looking for pace The electricity consumption was determined on the basis of Regulation 2017/1151/EU according to WLTP. Teams were required to submit a final design of their power units before the start of the 2022 season, with changes only allowed to be made to improve reliability or safety. The chart below shows free air races with no influence from traffic or car pace. It simply shows the difference in race time though tyre selection and stop lap. With Mercedes having made a poor start to the season, Sky F1's Naomi Schiff contemplates whether Hamilton will ever win a record eighth world title
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Damon Hill believes Mercedes may have got their 2023 concept fundamentally wrong, and will struggle to close the gap on Red Bull this season
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