segedunum wrote:Splitting hairs really, and quite frankly, effectively a new car (minus the 'compromises' he mentions) is exactly the impression that Ross Brawn is giving with his comments. Why would you choose not to test anything that you're going to be using all season until Friday morning in Bahrain? It makes no sense to me at all. You have such limited testing time as it is.
I share everyones concern for Mercedes this season, but the most obvious reason for delaying the package is development time. As long as this interim car works as the models predict then the revised car should also work as well as the models predict, so they may be hoping that by spending additional time developing the car then it will bring the associated performance. Doesn't always work out like that though.
segedunum wrote:Attention to detail is all, and the best people always have a bit of an OCD complex.
I agree but only to a degree. People with that level of attention to detail also struggle to get projects out the door as they're forever tinkering. Sometimes good enough is good enough and you have to get a project out of the door in order to learn how it behaves in the real world.
segedunum wrote:They make sure things are flush, there are no jagged leading edges, they don't create any unnecessary or risky changes in airflow, things are symmetrical and lined up with each other...... You saw it with Colin Chapman, today with Adrian Newey and his group of people and I see it with Renault this season as well. With some projects you can probably get away with something average, but you're on the bleeding edge in this sport.
Again for the most part I agree, however we see all the teams making spot repairs and on the hoof changes. Look at Red Bull's current exhausts and they don't look that high quality, there's a bit of a tacked on feel to them. I'm sure the production parts will be better quality.
So I guess rough edges when fixing or changing something are okay for a while, but with the Merc it's wrong to have so many rough edges.