Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Circuit de Catalunya, 2020

Hamilton: DAS shows Mercedes has become more “open minded”

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In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ Dual Axis Steering shows the team has become more adventurous in its engineering.

What they say

[smr2020test]Hamilton said he’s urged the team to ‘think outside the box more:

I’m just generally really proud of the guys think. Honestly, I think our whole mentality continues to progress and improve over the years, we become more and more open minded.

Engineers often are quite close-minded. They’re used to doing the same thing they’ve done in the past because it’s a safe and it’s reliable way because it’s worked before.

Over the last couple of years I’ve really been pushing, particularly more so on the track, but pushing the guys into areas where they’re not so comfortable and we’ve discovered things that we would never have, if we hadn’t done that. And it was really awesome to kind of break them a little bit, open them up to new ideas, and then that’s what’s also enabled us to move on and do great things like this.

So it’s really great to see them not doing the same things everyone else, thinking out the box. I think it’s really inspiring to see them continue to innovate ahead of everyone else. I know everyone else will be thinking ‘what the hell’s going on?’ So that’s a good thing for us.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Last weekend’s Caption Competition winner is Joe:

Antonio tampered with the fuel flow meter whilst Kimi and Robert kept a look out
Joe

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Keith Collantine
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28 comments on “Hamilton: DAS shows Mercedes has become more “open minded””

  1. I think that rather than Hamilton trying to claim ownership of the ‘innovation stakes’ it says to me that Mercedes are desperate to remain in front and therefore will move into areas that have not been fully explored in the past. Is there no end to this guys ego? Engineers, especially F1 engineers, are the masters of creative thinking in their particular calling.

    1. So why did James Allison state in his video introducing the W11 that having a 6 time world champion involved in the incubation of the car was invaluable? Sounds like they are both on the same page so I’ll go with them and not your blindly jealous rhetoric. 🤡

      1. Allison also said that they started developing the DAS 3 years ago. So probably Hamilton has been telling the engineers to think out of the box for the past 3 years but he only to make it public now :)

      2. RB13 Kind of ironic that you would use your own blind rhetoric when insulting someone by saying they are using ‘blindly jealous rhetoric.’ With a clown emoji to boot. And of course what else was Allison going to say? Leclerc as said only last year that having 4-time WDC SV in the team is invaluable too. It always helps a team to have experienced drivers. Especially proven winners.

        It’s ok you don’t have to defend LH with such rhetoric. His actions on the track speak loudly enough. And I wish he would go by the same concept. And that is really the only issue I have with LH, similar to what has been said here. I am not impressed by self-promoters. Eg. I like when people donate to a cause or charity anonymously, or even when they attach their name to a cause and promote it, but don’t disclose how much they themselves have donated, yet LH is the type that can’t resist telling people what he did and how much he spent, and it just comes off as self-serving. I’m sure some of this stems from the concept that the more followers one has the more one is liked, and LH seems to need that social media injection. Pity me because I grew up in Stevenage. Yet he’ll take selfies of himself in Haiti to make sure we know he’s there, where there truly is strife that makes his upbringing look like that of royalty.

        The theatrics, the kneeling beside his car after the race like he’s exhausted when no other driver seems to have had the race take the same out of them, and of course there was the awful ‘sabotage’ year of 2016. Things like that to me are fake and make one wonder about the motives.

        RB13 I haven’t lost a second of sleep over any of LH’s successes, so I really doubt I am ‘blindly jealous’ I’m just thoughtful about what type of people I like and self-promoting chest pounders are not them. Simple as that. You want to add some of your own rhetoric on top of my comment to try to alter my truth, that’s up to you, but as an LH fan it doesn’t do him any favours to show what kind of people he can attract.

        I’m fine with LH and his numbers. I don’t think he is an evil, awful person. Just can’t be a fan, nor can I be insulted into being one, but then you know that so you strike out with blind rhetoric as your last resort in LH’s defence. Can’t he and you just let his, very much along with Mercedes’ actions at the track, speak for themselves? Why aren’t the numbers enough by now? Because as we can see, that isn’t the whole story for everyone.

        1. @ Robbie…very well stated and i fully concur with your reasoned approach. The statement by Verstappen some few days ago where he said ‘Hamilton is no god’….should’ve drawn the ire of the Hamilton fans but by my observation it passed almost uncommented on. I have no liking for Verstappen as his arrogance grates, like that of his management at Red Bull. Nevertheless he said what many think yet don’t say as they are flamed at the earliest convenience…like i was!

        2. @robbie majority of your assessment comes as blind jealousy more than kenji! in fact i see way too much hate in it and in you than jealousy! who are you to tell what people should do with their lives or how they should promote themselves and what not… have you been into his shoes? have you walked the same path, have you sweat the same sweat? have you shed the same blood?… one thing you said is true though, “pity you” because even describing his achievements, you look down on this person from the highest tower you think you are on… numbers you call them pathetically… funny… every other sentence you write about LH in your reply to RB13 are the very definition of rhetoric and hate! before you discuss someone’s issues, i suggest you go and get your hate issues checked… it is too much within you…

        3. Wow @Robbie! Just speechless!

          1. No I responded to a couple of comments but they were deleted. I stand by what I have already said.

        4. yet LH is the type that can’t resist telling people what he did and how much he spent

          He regularly gives money to charity without saying anything publicly so this is obviously a lie.

          and of course there was the awful ‘sabotage’ year of 2016

          Oh yeah I remember your repeated lies about Hamilton back then too. Definitely a pattern with you.

          1. @Martin if LH does give out anonymous or unpublished charities, how would he know anyway? this guy then would accuse him off not doing anything for sure… this guy blatantly hates ham, yet tries to say yeah yeah he is good and he has numbers etc… cant even say achievements, championships, wins etc, he just calls them numbers… jealous more? hate more? he acting the exact letter of the word he is accusing people for :) that is ironic…

    2. My thoughts exactly. As a mechanical engineer and former owner of a race prep business I was always looking for the little bit that would help. Any engineer working for an F1 team who is not actively trying things and attempting to come up with new ideas should just quit. A bit of ego showing here from Lewis, IMHO.

    3. It’s pathetic for Hamilton to claim any sort of authorship to be honest. Let’s instead hear from the engineers that came up with such ideas. Of course Hamilton helps with his feedback on many areas of the car, but many engineers think creatively for themselves they don’t need a driver to ‘gee them up’. Disappointing.

    4. The mayonnaise is heavy on this on eh!
      Ham seems to bring out the worst in some.

      1. @lums indeed, hahaha.

        Getting their tears for the upcoming season started early.

    5. The vainglory of Hamilton is seriously off-putting..

      I wonder how the engineers will take to hearing how it was his ‘braking’ them that was the source of the innovation.

    6. Innovations like this starts with people asking obvious questions. Why do we have the wheels at that angle? What would happen if it wasn’t like that? From those basic question you get a train of thought and those alternative solutions.

      Of course you need clever engineers to make it happen, but sometimes you need people asking basic questions.

      I wouldn’t be surprised to learn in later years that the question on wheel geometry did in fact come from Hamilton.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        2nd March 2020, 18:57

        Actually Hamilton questioned the usefulness of DAS, so I doubt the idea came from him.

        He’s probably more talking about in general. Plus how he shows engineers wrong on track. Like in Silverstone, Mexico
        and France (IIRC) where he showed that he could set a fastest lap on old tyres still. While the engineers told him he couldn’t set a fast lap and he proved them wrong.

  2. Very nice caption, Joe – goes perfectly with the shifty-eyed expressions on Kimi and Antonio in particular!

  3. Hamilton said he’s urged the team to ‘think outside the box more:

    I think most if not all of the teams are trying to do this it is the essence of F1 and Motor Racing in general, constantly pushing forward to gain the slightest edge.

    “I personally would be a fan of alternating races. If a country wants to have a grand prix, that’s good for racing, but should you go to 24/25 or should you stay at 21/22 and rotate markets? That would keep demand up

    I hope Malone/Liberty whilst seeking maximum return on their investment doesn’t turn the F1 golden goose into a lame duck.

  4. Mercs twitter team is also f1 leading, media experts. Now Ben is going to think twice before asking anything, great move on the long run.

  5. I started to watch the 2nd series of DtS; this is the best warm-up to an exciting F1 season.

  6. Exciting season ahead.

    Mercedes with their two dimensional steering vs neuttered Ferrari engine.

    Last year with cheating Ferrari, we atleast saw some action. Now things will go baddly.

    I hope Verstapen has found more speed within him.

    1. Verstappen doesn’t need more speed, he needs to stop crashing into people

  7. Brown’s idea is good. A solid core of ten historic circuits, with the other ten slots rotating between venues is a great plan. Plus a cap of 20 races to prevent GP fatigue.

    All we need then is to get F1 back onto FTA TV…

    1. 100% onboard with all of these ideas 😀

  8. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    2nd March 2020, 10:00

    I’d quite like to see Nick Cassidy in an F1 car, or an FE car.

Comments are closed.