Mercedes GP MGP W01

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Nice piece in the telegraph today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motors ... -2011.html

[zgred]

[NewtonMeter]

Did anyone notice if merc ran their upgrades in the race? Those odd bargeboard fins under the nose comes to mind. I just saw in the pics posted by zgred (thanks btw) that they did run the diffuser with the exhaust ports. That is new isn't it?

And may I add, that I am very pleased by the pace of the mercs. They were on fire.

[mach11]

It was reported that the F-Duct on both the cars worked very well in this race...

Rosberg and Schumacher had very good laptimes and overall stability during today's race...

But all their Update packages have been already tested... and I guess there are no more scheduled updates for the coming 2 races...

BTW...

Has the development for the next year's car started full swing???

[mike]

wouldnt this be 3 profiles on the side? the gap clearly extend over the mid section of the wing

[ringo]

it extends over the mid section, but it's still 2 profiles.
One is shaped like a hair pin beyond the centre 150mm.



the end of the pin would be the slot in the back of the wing.

[ell66]

It was reported that the F-Duct on both the cars worked very well in this race...

Rosberg and Schumacher had very good laptimes and overall stability during today's race...

But all their Update packages have been already tested... and I guess there are no more scheduled updates for the coming 2 races...

BTW...

Has the development for the next year's car started full swing???

not many people noticed but inbetween the 2 race starts,merc were the only team to change to a fully wet set up. that would explain there good pace.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Hi ell6

Well spotted if true. Are they still under parc ferme even under race conditions??
This would also explain why Mercedes dropped off so badly in the final 15 laps compared to Alonso and Hamilton.

[NewtonMeter]

not many people noticed but inbetween the 2 race starts,merc were the only team to change to a fully wet set up. that would explain there good pace.

I thought parc ferme regulations are still applied between the race starts, not so?

Edit:
JET beat me to it. Why did they have such good straight line speed though? It's my understanding that a wet setup provides more downforce, but this would usually accompany a decrease in top speed as well. But the mercs did very in this regard IIRC...

[mach11]

It was reported that the F-Duct on both the cars worked very well in this race...

Rosberg and Schumacher had very good laptimes and overall stability during today's race...

But all their Update packages have been already tested... and I guess there are no more scheduled updates for the coming 2 races...

BTW...

Has the development for the next year's car started full swing???

not many people noticed but inbetween the 2 race starts,merc were the only team to change to a fully wet set up. that would explain there good pace.

Well Yep... they did change to a full wet setup... It was reported too that the mercedes engineers were working with the car after the race was suspended....

Hi ell6

Well spotted if true. Are they still under parc ferme even under race conditions??
This would also explain why Mercedes dropped off so badly in the final 15 laps compared to Alonso and Hamilton.

I don think the teams are under parc ferme conditions if the race is suspended... i might be wrong though....

[Mandrake]

Everyone on German TV and commentary said that when a race is red flagged, Parc Fermé is removed. The commentators in the pits talked to Nico Rosberg and MSC and asked about what they would change. Both MSC and NR stated there were only minor changes. The good performance was announced by MSC even on Saturday, so it wasn't a big surprise to them.

On the other hand, the commentators asked Vettel if they planned to change anything on the car during the break and SV answered that he wouldn't know what to change as is the car was totally fine and correctly set up.

[RacingManiac]

Same with US(Speed TV), AFAIK when its red flagged it is basically letting team doing work on the car like a regular pitstop. You can change setup during a stop but no one do it obviously since you lose a ton of time...

They did drop back a lot compare to Ferrari/Redbull/McLaren, but they were still fast enough to stay in front of the Williams/Renault...etc. So it was not entirely a bad decision on their part...

[djones]

Did they actually have good pace?

I mean if there wasnt all the happenings in the race MS would have still been over a minute behind??

[siskue2005]

its not red flag which removed the parc ferme rules

Any race as soon as the 5 red lights go off the parc ferma rules are gone
So anyone can change their setup after the race starts, but in normal race it usually takes time so no one will do it.
but in this situation it became an advantage as its red flagged

[RacingManiac]

Did they actually have good pace?

I mean if there wasnt all the happenings in the race MS would have still been over a minute behind??

I think they were more competitive when it was full wet, but as the track dries out towards the end they were getting left behind. It was very much still status quo I think since they were slower than the top 3 but enough to be ahead of the rest...