Our reaction to the Mercedes F1 car launch
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Brand
Mercedes
Mercedes is a well-known car brand that makes luxury cars and trucks. They are famous for their high-quality vehicles and advanced technology.
Concept
livery launch
A livery launch is when a car team shows off the design and colors of their car before the racing season starts. It's a way to get people excited about the upcoming races.
Concept
zero side pod concept
The zero side pod concept is a new design idea in racing cars where the side parts of the car are very small or even missing. This helps the car move faster by changing how air flows around it.
Term
AMG
AMG is a special division of Mercedes that makes faster and sportier versions of their cars. They focus on performance and unique designs.
Term
Ineos
Ineos is a new car company that makes tough off-road vehicles. Their first model is called the Grenadier, which is designed for adventure and rugged use.
Brand
Ferrari
Ferrari is a legendary car brand known for making fast and beautiful sports cars. They are also very involved in racing, especially in Formula 1, where they have a long history.
Term
compression ratio
The compression ratio is a number that shows how much an engine compresses the air and fuel mixture before it burns. A higher number usually means the engine can produce more power, but it might need special fuel to run well.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is a well-known muscle car that has been popular for decades. The 1973 version is part of a series that is famous for its powerful engines and sporty look.
Car
Pontiac Grand Prix SJ
The Pontiac Grand Prix is a car that was popular for its sporty design and good performance. The SJ version is a special trim that usually has more features and power.
Concept
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a popular racing series where fast cars compete in races around the world. It's known for its exciting races and advanced car technology.
Brand
McLaren
McLaren is a car brand that makes fast sports cars and is also a team in Formula 1 racing. They are known for their advanced technology and racing success.
Brand
Williams
Williams is a car brand that is also a team in Formula 1 racing. They have a long history in the sport and have won many races in the past.
Concept
Formula One
Formula One is a type of car racing that features very fast cars and takes place on special tracks around the world. It's known for being very competitive and exciting.
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Tommy. If you're noticing a gravelly voice, it's when you go to places and talk to a lot of people
and you project your voice and know it sounds like this. If you missed it, we're going to
just start it and say right now, we went to the Autosport Awards last night, not hungover.
Neither of us are hungover. We were very sensible because we knew about this Mercedes-Carloge.
However, my brain decided, you know what? You need Matt at 7am after going to bed at like
half two. It's some adrenaline. Why don't you just remember everything that happened at the
Autosport Awards? We won. We won. We won. And it's thanks to you because it was the fan
vote. We are creators of last year, I guess. I still haven't processed it. My brain is very
sleepy. But thank you. Yeah. Can't thank you enough. We did a little video on P1 Extra. Go
check that out if you've not seen it and subscribe to that channel because we just
wanted to share our thoughts while it was still fresh in the mind and it's still very
much fresh in the mind. It was an amazing night. Apologies that were a little bit
groggy and tired, but we're going to be chatting about the Mercedes, of course.
Can we call it a launch? It's a render. So Mercedes, they are doing a car launch.
I believe they're doing it after when they get a car. But obviously,
so many of the teams are just doing these livery launches so they can say, like,
here's our design. They have the moment in the sun, but it's so secretive at the
moment. There's so much going on with the new rules. There'd be so much changing.
Mercedes are a prime example. When we went into 2022, I remember them dropping those
renders of their car. Of course, they ended up with that zero side pod concept. It looked
completely different. And remember, everyone's sharing those renders of side by side versus
the real car. So don't be surprised if Mercedes have a six-wheeled car when it comes to testing
or something, and it's completely different. Yes, because I don't want to give away
any secrets. This is not to show off what innovations they've done. It's to show off
their livery and that's about it. Well, let's speak about it. Let's speak about it. I
really like it. I'm a big fan. I wondered whether Tommy is going to say, I don't like this,
I don't like this, I don't like this. That's fine. I rolled over in bed, saw that the
Mercedes had launched and went, oh, oh, damn, that's hot. So that was my initial reaction.
And I like it. I've got it up here on the phone just to have it. I like the stripes on the side.
I think that really does just sit quite beautifully. And it's flowing. I enjoy it. You know, they've
got the little sort of symbols at the back, which they've kept, haven't they? They have the
stars. Yeah, the stars. When did they bring that home? Was it last? Oh, a long time. No,
in like 2019. I guess they've had different colors to complement. Yeah, because they did
the AMG logo for a while, which was very bold. Definitely different. But I'm a fan of it. I like
it. I think it's a good looking car. And they haven't ruined it. We're going to start our post-award
era with a different car. Yeah, here we go. I remember, I'm sorry I went, I don't think Tommy's
going to like that. No, I don't. I don't. And I think Mercedes have actually, they're getting
there with the whole silver and black. And actually, I think last year was really good.
They don't have the red anymore for the Ineos. And I think that really helps with the overall car.
But looking at this, the front angle, great. Some of the side angle. And I think
when we see it on track, I'll know a little bit more as well of how much the silver pops.
Ring the Tommy when we see it on track. Because it can change your opinion. But for me,
I'm looking at that going, graphic designer, calm down. You don't need to have too many
ideas on one thing. Because the stars, as you mentioned, on the back, I don't like the stripes,
basically. I don't like the stripes. No, I think they're really cheesy. I think they are
too garish. And the bit on the back that I think is the coolest bit about the Mercedes is the
faded stars. So why you'd put stripes on it as well, stars and stripes? Are they American?
I don't know. Very weird. No, they're not. Exactly. They're not. It just screams like
too many ideas. And a lot of the time with the best F1 liveries, in my opinion,
it really is less is more. And I really don't like the stripes at all. That is the one thing that
I saw. And I was like, particularly the rear three quarters, when you can see the stripes
and the stars together, it's like, that's a lot going on. So that's kind of my thoughts on that.
I didn't, it didn't wow me. I think initially, like you see it from certain angles, it's like,
that's really cool. But I was just like, those stripes, not for me. No, not for you. There's
lots to Adidas, I would assume. I don't know. People have been saying, you would say,
yeah, you assume, but I don't, Adidas, I don't think it's four. No, it's not,
it's three stripes. So I don't really understand why. Like if it had been,
ironically, I'd even say the Adidas stripes would have looked cooler because it's like the
three stripes and they're bigger and it's like a pattern. But why there's like four or five,
maybe it's, is it four? Yeah, four. So four, eight championships, four on each side,
I don't know, maybe that's what it is. Oh, the popo are out. The police are here to arrest me,
for my opinion. Yes, I was going to say they've had Tommy's terrible opinions.
The graphic designer is called for your arrest. But no, not a fan to me. I do think the
Mercedes normally is one of the best, but the stripes are just too much for me.
I like it a lot. I like the stripes. I see, I understand your point about the fact that it
takes away from the stars, like it does take away the focus slightly. But I'm a fan of the stripes,
I really am. I think it's a really good looking car. They've had worse, for sure.
Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. As you say, like the red's been taken out now. So I think it's
cleaner from that side of things. Yeah, I think it will look good on track, personally.
It will. I know this is such a cliche as well, but when you see certain cars, and I think you've
felt it from the red bull in years gone by, where you're just like,
you know, that looks like a championship winning car. I don't know, there's just
something about it. Maybe it's like the aura of it or just that we know that they're going
to be very strong. But when I saw that car, it's like, well, yeah, they mean business.
Yeah, and obviously we went to the Autosport Awards, as we mentioned last night. And
all I'm going to say is coming out of the Autosport Awards, I am now even more concerned
that there's going to be a Mercedes-dominated era. That's all we're going to say. That's the concern
has been greatly heightened, and I think Ferrari are finished. So good, I've lost all hope immediately.
That's fantastic. So of course, no car launch, renders at 9am, as Tommy said.
Nixie underscore one asks, should teams be obliged to do a live stream when revealing their car?
Should they? I don't know. The renders, maybe the fact that it could have been a video
would have been nice. Like in this day and age, Haas is a great example. They dropped renders,
don't they? They had the renders of the car. It's not the real car. It is easy enough for teams.
They dropped a video. Yeah, they dropped a video. And I like that. So even though it's
not a car launch, you don't have the build-up and a physical car, it is a little bit nicer to have that
anticipation, obviously, where you can watch a video. Even if it's 30 seconds of
lights and teasing a little bit, it's like, oh, this is because that's what Haas obviously did,
rather than just going, here's the car. But yeah, they dropped it. They do love a little
9am launch Mercedes here in the UK. I don't know if it's the Mercedes admin just gets into working.
He's like, no messing about. Come on, post it. I know what, clocked out. See you later.
But yeah, they do love dropping some renders. And yeah, sometimes Mercedes do do a big
extravagant car launch. Maybe they're scarred because the one memory I have of a Mercedes car
launch was when Lewis announced that he was leaving Mercedes for Ferrari. And then it was just kind
of like, they had to do this car launch and all the pressure, they just wanted him to ask him about
Ferrari. They're probably like, let's just, yeah, they didn't want me to come out just then, did
they? I think with the renders, it's kind of lazy. I'm not going to lie to you. It feels
lazy. The fact that they, as you say, they haven't made a video, they haven't done an
like an anticipatory one minute 30, like Haas did or one minute 15, whatever they did.
Now that's, I think the least you can do, of course, as we mentioned, they are going to do a
car launch from what we understand later on, the early Feb. So like, that's the thing that
doesn't make sense to me the most is, why would you do a car launch? And they've done this several
times now. Why would you do a car launch when we all know what it looks like? And that's the
main thing everyone tunes into is what is the car going to look like? Now I don't know what
plain and say that like, you know, there's always this this divide of some people saying like,
oh, you know, there's a car launcher, a livery launch, they're two separate things. But
it's so hard to understand, you know, even the most the tech experts looking at it,
everyone's interpreted everything different. So looking at a car, you don't know how fast
it's going to be. So the main takeaway for 99% of people is what the livery looks like. So to
do a car launch again, where it's like, here's the same livery you've seen, but the barge boards are a
bit smaller, or there's a little end plate here, here and there, which will probably change by the
next test anyway. It's kind of a little bit, yeah, it probably underwhelms people a bit,
doesn't it? It does, yeah, because apart from obviously the tech nerds out there, the,
and we said, Tommy, you talk about compression ratio, you know, like, you know, there's
not I don't think there's many people that would tune into the car launch to be looking at
these innovations that actually again, feel like a little bit of a waste of time when we
actually get to testing and they've had private private testing and they're trying all different
things. It's not going to be the car that we see in Australia. So what is there really to
learn? I don't know. I mean, it's obviously cool to have the car launch, but I just feel as though
I personally am tuning in for the livery the most, because that's the biggest, most
visual change we're going to see at this point in the year. And it's unusual as well this
year with with how the testing has fallen, where you've got the secret test and it's
very early. So some cars releasing before some cars releasing after you've seen someone like
Cadillac, for example, not reveal their livery yet. And I think personally I quite like that idea of
if you do really want to kind of do something before and reveal the car or whatever and have
it on testing, do some like really funky cool testing livery and then do a car reveal later.
So it is a little bit different because, you know, I'm calling it now. Let me say these
all do a car launch and you bet 99.9% of the Twitter comments. I've already seen this.
Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. So yeah, it's not as if Mercedes don't have money either. That's
my main gripe, like with Hass and smaller teams, I can understand maybe why they would just put
a video out there and be like, cool, see you this season. This obviously is the first of
two parts as we mentioned, but it feels like I've known that the movie ending before we even
tune it out. It's it's all tiny and we'll forget about it come come Australia, but this is what we
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Next question comes in from P1P. Remember Lex Wakeman with the rumored Mercedes
engine advantage this year. How many potential race wins could Ansonnelli have? Podium in his
first year maybe eyes on the championship in the second. I think that sort of trajectory
makes sense for me. I think Kimmy, what we saw last year were moments of brilliance,
but not nearly enough to suggest that he can win a world championship yet. I think that's doing
George Russell a massive disservice if we say that Kimmy, from what we have seen last year,
will be able to beat George. Imagine predicting him for the world championship crazy.
Imagine predicting Charlotte Gleather win the world championship. I'm already massively
regretting that. I genuinely think there's more chance of Nika Holkenberg winning the world
championship. Back to Mercedes, back to Kimmy. I think this makes perfect sense. I would
expect him to get a few wins. I'd expect him to be on the podium a lot. What kind of step-up we're
going to see this year and I think we've sort of explored that a little bit is unknown. If we see
an Oscar Piastri-esque step-up then perhaps. Kimmy does have the talent. He has the raw speed.
I'm in two minds whether these new regulations will actually play into the hands of the
rookies and the not as much experience because they don't have as much muscle memory to
overturn. There's that side of things that's again an unknown, a bit of an exciting prospect for
for Kimmy Antonelli fans. I don't think he's challenging for a championship in the first,
but if we see a big step this year then why not in 2027?
Yeah, obviously I predicted him champion and that mainly was at the end saying that it's
because for me George Russell is the obvious choice and I didn't want to do a predictable
choice which again like it is so odd that it's the predictable choice when he's never won the
world championship. But I am like and no offense to George I've said it again like I hope I'm wrong
in the case that you know if he wins it it's not a whitewash but it feels like going into the
season you're almost like so convinced so I hope it's not going to be a whitewash from
Mercedes and they're going to be so clear because we want a close championship. We've been
scarred by 2014 and how dominant they were and when a new regulation change comes in
particularly I think as well like it's a new regulation but it's a really really really
complicated one. There's a reason why they're doing a secret test for five days and they're only
allowed to do three of them of those five days because they think they're going to be breaking
down a lot the cars aren't going to be starting up there's so much to learn and this is the
thing with it so Antonelli you know if Mercedes are clear he's going to win he's going to win races
surely and the championship is whether he's got that consistency because the consistent we know
George Russell is one of if not the most consistent driver on the grid like that's something he's
always been even when he was that kind of like Williams and stuff so yeah I think I think
George is obviously the favorite but Antonelli I surely you know if the car's good he's
going to have a great season because he's got a very high ceiling and he showed those moments
last year where you know towards the end of the season like Brazil he you know he was was amazing
in that race and the whole weekend it was clear of George Russell it just you know it needs to
be more than two or three races a year. Exactly so I think it's quite clear where we both stand
on how Mercedes are going to do this season. I will sort of say on top of this that
we can't discount McLaren we really can't discount McLaren I think as well not for the championship
but for great results again Williams it's the Mercedes powered cars that genuinely it's not
we are thinking of course Mercedes will have the advantage because they're the ones developing
the engine they're always going to have first dibs in terms of the information and everything
as it comes in but I think it would be very silly to say that McLaren don't have a chance
of winning the world championship back to back you know they're not being spoken about we've
sort of of course said that we think it's unlikely just from what we've been hearing but we've heard
many a rumour in the last 25 years of watching Formula One and a lot of them are involving
Ferrari being the fastest car after testing and then ending up not being the fastest car
after so you know there are plenty of rumours that go around especially into new regulations
that don't come true yeah you never you never know and yeah even if Mercedes are clear
you've got McLaren as you say you've got you've got Williams who are an amazing
trajectory as well who are going to have and have put everything into this regulation
you've got McLaren who you could argue were very obviously like very very very good last
year and maybe that that's helped them in being able to put more focus onto the new year because
you already had a really good car from the get-go and you can't count count them out
it is funny there how like all the talk is that Mercedes engine and you know it goes back to
the the prediction that I made about Max Verstappen not winning a race and I know like it's
triggered a lot of people but it is my concern that you know we are going to get a situation
where we if that if that Mercedes engine is clear it's an engine formula if they have found
this trick that makes them half a second clear you've got three tenths or whatever clear clear
but clear but yeah it's a it's a huge margin you've got Mercedes McLaren Williams and Alpine
with his engine that's the top eight so it's going to be very hard for people to get a sniff
and there's going to be like people breaking down and things and I hope that for other like
people and other teams and with their engines and things like they can develop and catch up if
that's the case but look we're going to find out and we said this when we did our our predictions
we're going to we're going to even though that test is secret there's going to be there's
going to be rumors there's going to be things like they will know stuff like we're in it we're
in a world now where there's social media it's not as it can't be secret in this world you
you will know what's happening they had a secret test before we saw pictures we knew everything
that was going on and times and everything basically like I think even in those like first
couple of days we are going to go oh okay it's not as bad as we think or we're going to go
I thought yeah oh no our fears are here we told you so my word in the 30s I have yeah something
amazing yeah yeah and then we will be launching a podcast in a different sport because we can't
do 2014 or over again absolutely not but yes we will keep obviously our ears to the ground and
see see what we can find out over the coming weeks when testing finally starts of course
more car launches coming your way some live streams will be back for our live streams
from sort of well today onwards we'll be back to do any any events that that happen
looking forward to see how just just how many points Ferrari aura farm when we when we get to
our word yeah because that's that that is the one championship we do win is is aura farming
so well they do a 50 minute car launch where they're just constantly like you know catwalks and
cool lights and good destruction and good distraction from the actual car and then
don't reveal the car they're just like oh by the way here's a render okay bye all right there you go
thank you everybody for tuning in to this Mercedes livery reveal chats and looking forward to proper
racing in the in a couple of months but until then or month and a half until then we will see
you soon for more car launches thank you again for voting for us for the August congratulations
thanks for that crazy scenes and we'll see you soon bye bye
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About this episode
The hosts share their excitement and opinions on the recent Mercedes F1 car launch, which was more of a livery reveal than a full car presentation. They discuss the aesthetics of the new design, highlighting the mixed reactions to the stripes on the car. While one host appreciates the new look, the other criticizes the stripes as overly busy. They also reflect on their recent win at the Autosport Awards and express concerns about Mercedes potentially dominating the upcoming season. The episode captures the blend of enthusiasm and critical analysis typical of F1 discussions.
Original notes
We’re fresh off our *amazing* win at the Autosport Awards for a chat about the new Mercedes livery - slapped on a car that will probably bear no resemblance to the actual car come testing. And we’re disagreeing over it!
Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us in the Autosport Awards, we couldn’t have done it without you!
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