2021 Race 6 - Baku

[airshifter]

The funny thing is that, the front brakes did engage but the car seemed to be speeding up. Could this be an exposure of some hidden gimmick on the Mercedes?

Since everyone else slowed to take the corner, probably just an illusion of sorts since front break lock and no rear brakes wouldn't slow the car much. Keep in mind F1 cars usually carry a more balanced break bias than street cars, since the rear wings produce downforce. Most street cars get more front breaking power, since few are as "balanced" overall as a Formula 1 car.

I´m glad that Kimi scored a point, the team needed that. Well how time changes!

Yep, the old man of F1 got into the points again. Kimi, Kimi, Kimi! Overall it was good to see the mix in the points and shake things up some.




As for the error, it seems to me that they would make it harder to accidentally engage a break bias device in such a way. But it seems common for teams to use this or a similar method. It might also explain some of the spins and such that seem silly during warm up laps. By having break bias hard to the front, it helps heat all brakes and tires, since the engine can be working harder against the front brakes, and the rears are working harder to push the car with the brakes dragging, even when the wheels aren't spinning. Intentional wheelspin can help heat the backs even more.

So it could have been the slower warm up lap behind the pace car that had the Merc smoking so much on the line, or maybe Lewis was just working real hard to get max heat in the tires, since he knew it would just be a couple lap shootout to race.

It's just surprising that it bit him this race if they have used it for so long.


Toto isn't happy with Merc right now, and the team is showing signs of cracking under the pressure from RB this year. I'm not sure if that is what got to Lewis, but something did.