Red Bull Racing and Mercedes closed out 2021 at the top of the rankings. After the first three days of testing, the two teams are also back on top. However, Sky Sports analyst Johnny Herbert thinks Mercedes may have an advantage over Red Bull at the start of the season.
The advantage Herbert thinks he will see at Mercedes has everything to do with the budget cap, the first steps of which were introduced last year. In strictly defined areas, teams are bound by a maximum budget. The reason for this is to make the competition between the ten F1 teams fairer. This year marks the next step in the plan and the teams have had even less to spend.
'Mercedes spent less on 2021'
According to the Briton, Mercedes may have played a long-term strategy in 2021 in order to be ahead of its rivals in 2022. Herbert then compared the development strategies of the two top teams in 2021 at Sky Sports: "They [Mercedes] didn't spend much last year. Their biggest update was at Silverstone. Red Bull, on the other hand, came up with an update almost every race." Herbert thinks Mercedes deliberately opted for few, but big updates to use the budget they had left in advance to develop the W13.
The conclusion Herbert draws from his argument is: "I think it will happen again this year for Lewis Hamilton." Whether Herbert knows more or whether this is just the personal wish of the Briton is not clear. In any case, the analyst seems to find it striking that Mercedes came up with fewer updates in 2021, even though they were bound by the same budget as Red Bull Racing and the other teams.
Mercedes brought 2 upgrades last year 1 after they were 4 tenths of q second slower tha Redbull after the Bahrain testing that led to them winning 3 of the first 4 races then the Silverstone upgrade that allowed them to dominated the secondhand of the season and that was it jacking fresh engines was the other part of their strategy to prevent bringing more updates
Mercedes will always have an engine and mgu-h advantage over all teams until 2026. They had blueprints ready before they pitched it to FIA and this is precisely why they have won all constructors in the hybrid era....all driver titles and constructor titles are tainted as they were won by gaining an unfair advantage
Herbert sure knows how to swallow those Hamilton and Mercedes sponsored hot dogs. Biased to the core !
Mercedes also did several million dollars in damage to Red Bull's cars last year. So there's also that.
Lol. If only Max knew how to avoid crashes instead of cause them.
Nothing more than what Redbull and Max have been doing to the grid since he came into F1 do the research max have more crashes in 1 year than Lewis has has in 17 years
MAxFan’s favourite website has confirmed upgrades for 2021 There could be a Jolyon or Buxton tutorial? But I never follow this website. Nor will I ever.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.tech-tuesday-how-red-bull-and-honda-cleverly-transformed-2020s-rb16-into-the.1iHxI46LM8z3t1fXX7SQBg.html
Red Bull did do more upgrades on their car in 2021 than Mercedes. Merc stopped early and maybe this didn't help their 2021 campaign.
But Merc knew to concentrate on 2022 as the rule changes were so drastic.
Red Bull on the other hand were very much focused on 2021 and getting Max a title (no matter what or how).
I said last year that it could hinder them in 2022.
We shall see.
Mercedes pushed all 2021 ! I don’t know where people got this idea that they stopped development they never did.
Correction. What we saw last year was moreso Hamilton pushing the car for at least 75 percent of last season. They only turned the engine up to full capacity towards the end of the season because it was so close in the Drivers' Championship. Remember the Constructors was pretty much decided by then which afforded Mercedes the risk of turning up the engine.
I was thinking the same, this guy never heard of customised parts for certain track.
If RB had upgrade every track Mercedes would be destroyed by the end, quite opposite Mercedes found some speed from Turkey and that’s not free of cost
Like u know it all dynamiq. NOT. You could write on back of a stamp what u know about f1
Redbull's aero will be top class as it's always been. The only interesting thing remains, whether Honda will be able to match Merc power output as they did last year. If yes, then Max and Checo would be unstoppable. If not, it won't really be Redbull's fault. They might have to wait until 2026 to have another go.
It will be really great if Ferrari/Alpine beat both of them.
Sounds like u are getting excuses in early...honda did well last year by all measures...but if RB get beaten...it will be Honda's fault...heads i win...tails u lose..in what world does RB lose fairly then ?.
Honda and Redbull are two different companies. Redbull is still a customer team of Honda. Redbull only design their own Chassis but don't have any control on the engine side of things. Yes, Redbull can give their inputs to Honda about the whole PU packaging to achieve proper integration, but those yearly basis gains are entirely in the hands of Honda.
Not anymore, Red Bull set up their own engine division called 'Red Bull Powertrains' to take over Honda's intellectual property. The reins are being handed over to them now
Correct, but it's Red Bull's preferred approach, it's not being forced on them. Honda were working on the 2022 engine so that Red Bull can have a better chance of delivering a decent engine for 2026.
Same could be said of the opposition, it is human nature and not a trait of a team specific.
The Honda engine was not matching the Mercedes engine lady year, Verstappen drove the car very that's the reason the reason they looked the same
We also know Mercedes had.no development tokens.spent last season. The w12 was practically the w11, with some tweaks.
Thats was the strategy then focus on the development of the w13, smart on Mercedes side.
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