Mercedes GP W02

[Byron R]

The turkey race was a cool one, 60 F.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

The turkey race was a cool one, 60 F.

Hotter than China and not to mention far bumpier.

[Adamski]

I think the MGP W02 has a good race pace, but on Sunday, only for Schumacher. He made good progress on the softs after his collide with Petrov, but after he change to hard, he stuck in the midfield.
Rosberg is very good in Saturday, but burn out his tires after some laps in the race, so I think that problem was mostly because of his setup, not the car.
Brawn also hinted, that race setup is more important now. So, the grid position for Rosberg is very good, too good for the MGP W02.

Very interesting for me, that they are still running the short wheelbase. I'm not a racing driver, nor a mechanic guru, so they all know it better why doing it, but look at the on-board footage. They are really struggling whit a decreased stability, especially when entering a corner. I think, the shorter wheelbase also killing these Pirelli tires.
The RBs so stable while cornering, because of the longer wheelbase with much less tire wear and of course with lot of down-force, to compensate the less corner agility.

If MB can sort out these stability problems with some updates, they will be at the front. At the end of the year, I think they will deliver some podium finishes.

[NewtonMeter]

Did anyone hear about any complaints about DRS or kers this week? Or can we consider those issues fixed?

Very curios to find the updates for turkey. Probably cooling (the Achilles heel of the W02) and hopefully some performance as well.

I heard sometime during the weekend that they didn't introduce the entire cooling package at turkey. Can anyone confirm this?

[Dragonfly]

I noticed that while others had a very visible speed advantage in the DRS zone, MS could not quite catch Algersuari and this was in fact the reason for the exciting triple action in the last turns. Maybe his tires simply couldn't provide enough traction, because the majority of overtaking moves were already half done almost on top of the hill.

[Byron R]

You could hear him hitting the limiter during the onboard footage.
Lack of testing on dry track? Or a compromise for all out pace vs using DRS ?

[Byron R]

Just for thought , DRS has to be compromised somewhat. For qualy it's used without restriction, the difference being something like 15kph. Maybe a better grid position for the race. In race trim it's only used 1 time per lap if and only if you're close to someone. In a 60 lap race , maybe it's used 10 to 15 times. Not accounting for much overall race time. Do they gamble on qualy or go for the race?

[mantikos]

You could hear him hitting the limiter during the onboard footage.
Lack of testing on dry track? Or a compromise for all out pace vs using DRS ?

I am not sure what his hitting the rev limiter implies as far as his driving goes...

[bot6]

Could they have gambled a bit on Schumi's car and put in gearbox ratios more suited to race trim as opposed to quali, with a shorter 7th gear? Then he would hit the limiter sooner when using DRS...

[roadwarrior]

You could hear him hitting the limiter during the onboard footage.
Lack of testing on dry track? Or a compromise for all out pace vs using DRS ?

I am not sure what his hitting the rev limiter implies as far as his driving goes...

I also noticed he was hitting the limiter a lot out of the final turn onto the start finish straight. He seems to get a lot more wheel spin out of slow corners and then hits the limiter before changing up. That could easily be losing a tenth on each slow corner.

Could they have gambled a bit on Schumi's car and put in gearbox ratios more suited to race trim as opposed to quali, with a shorter 7th gear? Then he would hit the limiter sooner when using DRS...

Perhaps, it's possible. After his quick times in FP3 perhaps they thought he would qualify high up and wouldn't do as much over taking but that would be a very risky strategy.

[bcoxa]

He’s constantly hitting the limiter while acceleration out of a slower corner, I think this is where he losing his time to Rosburg.

What was the rev limit when he left in 2006?

[Byron R]

Coming through the DRS zone is what I was referring to. Not enough gear at top speed, thus being a lower speed there. I was referring to the earlier post of Schumacher being slower there. I should have quoted it.
Hitting the rev limiter in the slower corners falls back onto the W02's lack of rear end grip, or the driver being impatient with the throttle.

[bcoxa]

But not maximising your gear changes is inefficient and would therefore make you slower irrespective of gear, location, speed or wheel spin. Wouldn’t it?

[keoxiv]

What the "magic pedal" is mentioned in the team radio and located on the left under the wheel? They use it during qualifying (it can be easily seen from onboard cams), but I don't know whether they use it in the race.

[axle]

What the "magic pedal" is mentioned in the team radio and located on the left under the wheel? They use it during qualifying (it can be easily seen from onboard cams), but I don't know whether they use it in the race.

It was Magic Paddle as in lever. This is a mode changer for the car on the steering wheel. It sets the car to, in the terms of Knight Rider..."Pursuit Mode"