Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2019: Race Report - Lewis Hamilton 8th, Jenson Button Retired

Bahrain F1 Grand Prix 2019: Race Report - Lewis Hamilton 8th, Jenson Button Retired

鈥淭here are good times and bad times in motor racing. I guess this was just one of those days. 鈥淏y rights we should have been fighting to finish in the top four today, but it didn鈥檛 work out like that in the end. The delays in the pits were a big part of that, of course. For the driver sitting in the car, that鈥檚 always frustrating, because you鈥檙e just waiting and there鈥檚 nothing you can do to help. 鈥淲e lost a bit of world championship momentum today - but, on the plus side, we still picked up four world championship points, and every point you score is valuable in a season as close-fought as this one. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have a very good balance today: I was struggling all afternoon with oversteer. We were taking front wing out of the car all the way through the race, in fact. 鈥淗owever, my final stint was a long one, and, if I hadn鈥檛 struck trouble, I reckon things would have got quite interesting in the final laps. Some drivers had pushed harder at the start of that stint, but I鈥檇 been looking after my tyres. So I quickly radioed the team, and pitted.

鈥淚n the last few laps, the car sounded really noisy. I think the initial problem was an exhaust failure, then my puncture, and then a differential failure; so I had to retire. 鈥淐learly, our performance was disappointing this afternoon. 鈥淗aving said that, both Lewis and Jenson drove very well in extremely challenging conditions. 鈥淛enson, too, had a frustrating run, which was finally curtailed by a puncture and a problem with both his differential and his exhaust, the combination of which forced us to retire his car. Again, we鈥檒l investigate what caused those problems in due course. 鈥淗aving said all that, we鈥檙e in second position in the constructors鈥?world championship, just nine points behind the leaders; equally, our drivers lie second and fourth in the drivers鈥?world championship. Lewis, in second, is just four points off the lead. 鈥淔rom here we travel to Barcelona, on which circuit we performed strongly in pre-season testing. 鈥淚鈥檝e said it before and I鈥檒l say it again: the 2012 season is shaping up to be both gripping and unpredictable. Some races you win, some you don鈥檛.

299/month. That's cheaper than the all-new A-Class Sedan. Financing rates are still looking good at 1.99% for up to 72 months on select models. However, the best deals aren't always advertised. 1,500 in dealer cash, although the catch is that you'll have to find a dealer willing to pass along the full amount. Offers listed here are available nationally through July 1, 2019. Stay tuned for possible changes for the July Fourth holiday. Special offers from Mercedes typically don't change much month to month. That's quite different from competitors like Lexus, which are usually "hot" or "cold" one month to the next. Leasing continues to be extremely popular, which may come as no surprise. Expect to see a mix of regular offers as well as Sign & Drive promotions. Unlike mainstream brands, Mercedes doesn't advertise rebates. Instead, it routinely gives dealers unadvertised dealer cash incentives to help price cars more aggressively. In general, we find that shoppers are able to better take advantage of such offers with larger dealers. You won't see any of this advertised, which means you'll have to request a quote to see the best price. The best discounts tend to be on slower-selling sedans like the E-Class and S-Class. Lower-priced models like the CLA-Class tend to rarely see deep discounts. Unfortunately, due to the popularity of the brand's SUVs, we often see extremely little discounting on models like the GLC-Class and GLS-Class, so expect to pay a premium on those with few exceptions.

It now appears Merc is looking at ways to boost their performance on the straights. It looks like there are several reasons they are confident enough to trial this solution, which I'll address below. Traditionally, the Mercedes was never outstanding in slow corners. That started to change during the back half of last season, and carried over to this season. Now, Mercedes is the strongest team in the field when it comes to slow corner performance. The W10 platform "gained" quite a bit of rake from the end of the second week of testing into the first race (confirmed via AMuS), and from this shot, it looks like they're contemplating running even more on certain tracks. This setup looks like preparation for tracks such as China (longest straight on the calendar), Baku, and perhaps even Canada. If Mercedes is happy with the mechanical grip they're generating in slow corners, perhaps they're content with running a smaller wing than in the past for their lower-downforce configuration in order to reduce aerodynamic drag on the long straights. It's probably less of a tradeoff than before with the higher, wider wings in use this year. There鈥檚 a trade off you aren鈥檛 mentioning.

Increasing rake increases front projected area which increases form drag. You have to find the trade off between decreasing rear wing drag and increasing rake. Rake is not meant to stay "fixed". Not at least how it has been used for a long time now. The objective is to have a rear end that goes down as speed increases. This way, all things being equal, there's both a benefit of less drag at the end of straights and more downforce at corners. Much like a "movable wing" would allow thanks to a difference in the angle of attack of aero surfaces. The trick is to keep the underside of the car working when it lifts away from the ground by means of say sealing the sides with a downwash stream of air. The trade-off is some mech grip is loss due to a higher center of gravity at low speeds.