Belated merry xmas to all posters on F1Technical.
Marcush, the W01 was closer to the top 3 at the end of the year than it was at the start. The softer tyre is what killed the Merc. When higher grip levels where there, the cars flaws where plain for all to see.
Witness Schumacher and Rosberg wrestling understeer for the first half of the year.
Onboard footage showed us quite vividly that Mercedes problems where the fronts weren't biting.
The problem is two fold, correction on entry and on exit. This is where the time is lost. I will try find you the footasge of Valencia where it was most pronounced, but in relation to Renault and even Force India the cars flaw was almost visible from outside the car...let alone onboard.
The cars balance became better especially from after valenica. No surprise then that the car looked faster too.
We must also factor in a few things for 2011.
1 .Pirelli tyre
2. Mercedes power and KERS
3. no fduct
4. movable rear wing(possible room for development here)
5. Standardised weight distribution(excluding fluids and ballast)
6. possible mooted switch to pullrod suspension
7. Time to refine ideas seen on rival teams (like flexi wings etc)
8. DDD Ban
Being an optimist I see the most of these things in favour of Mercedes GP.
Apart from the DDD ban most things are accounted for.
Hiring the Michelin tyre guru will help, as will the aquisition of suspension engineer Iguchi.
We will see what Mercedes come up with for 2011 very soon(less than 6 weeks I think) and we will see wether the team have gone for evolution rather the revolution. With the banning of the DDD I see them incorporating even more Red Bull design elemants....but thats just me.