Mercedes GP W02

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Yes thats another explanation Marcush.

I did not see the times, so I only went on the limitied viewing of the race.
How much of an effect does the exhaust gas have on the rear tyres I wonder.

[Adamski]

Ross Brawn say after the race: "The difficulties that we experienced on the first set of tyres, with the super softs falling away from us and graining so early, really dictated our race."

I understand, that "super softs falling away from us" means the tires were useless. So maybe it's my misunderstood.
If they burning the rear tires with the exhaust gases, it's a real shame as I'm very happy, that the team go on its own way and didn't copy the Red Bull solution or any of them.
I'm still hopeful, because until they can't find solutions for all of their problems this car just compete in compromised circumstances.

Interesting date and maybe a little answer for the bad race pace:
Qualifying laps:
Schumacher: 29
Rosberg: 26
Vettel: 18
Button: 18

[Adamski]

twhat you call wear is in my view an overheating situation.It´s not like Schumacher was on the pace and had to give way and pit because his rears were used up.He was dead slow after lap one and could not make any impression from the word go after the start ..maybe apart from overtaking Hamilton in loews but that was not tyre related.
Rosberg could only stay in the queue and his pace was bad from the word go ..So there was really something wrong which was not related to tyre wear.(Or did they both use just one set of supersofts in the whole qualy? that would be at least an explanation for these supersofts not performing anymore.
I can imagine that again they have no handle on the tyre temps especially the temperaturte spread front rear maybe it´s just they cannot have low enough pressures at the start to prevent the hot pressures to increase too much for a proper inflated shape at the lower speeds in monaco? In Qualy no problem there ,you live wiith the fact that your rear grip is gone after 2 laps but what to do when you need to go for another 12 laps?

Great explanation marcush. but what went wrong after Thursday? They don't see this effect on longer stints in practice. That is the reason why they are so optimistic on Saturday.

[marcush.]

Could it be they went for a overly safe/conservative pressure setting for the rears after Schumachers and Rosbergs offs? both could possibly be influenced by low tyre pressure.
The problem is in the first lap you are very vulnerable when your prssures are too low .. so the fact that their rears work the tyres harder maybe ,just maybe ,has caused their dilemma.Later on with fuelloads going down the low "cold" pressures are not the big issue any more.
Tyre pressures are quite tricky and sometimes you just get things wrong cause you value some things completely wrong and end up with the wrong pressure /inflatzed shape ,a problem that is exagerrating itself..so the situation gets worse and worse.

[spadeflush]

They certainly must have made some changes in the cars' setups after Nico's crash. That might explain the mismatch between the drivers' expectations after practice and the actual race pace.
I think the W02 will fare better in Canada than Monaco. Monaco is really a very unique track and the problems faced there by MGP might not necessarily resurface in Canada. The team will have a tyre solution sooner than later. I still think W02 is better than the W01 but the tyres have messed up the results. What are the chances of the team bringing some "significant" upgrades for Canada?

[roadwarrior]

Does anyone know what was wrong with Michael's car before the start of the race? During Martin's grid walk (for BBC viewers) you could see his engineers frantically putting the right side of Michael's car back together. It looked like they found a problem after he went to the grid. Could that have been the influence of the fire in his air box I wonder?

[marcush.]

They certainly must have made some changes in the cars' setups after Nico's crash. That might explain the mismatch between the drivers' expectations after practice and the actual race pace.
I think the W02 will fare better in Canada than Monaco. Monaco is really a very unique track and the problems faced there by MGP might not necessarily resurface in Canada. The team will have a tyre solution sooner than later. I still think W02 is better than the W01 but the tyres have messed up the results. What are the chances of the team bringing some "significant" upgrades for Canada?

The Qualy is fixing all major points of the race setup.So it is very likely it was decided to go one notch up with rear cold pressures .something you cannot really check in Q ,as you don´t have long runs.Adding to this with the red flag the session was also torn apart so maybe they felt the higher rear pressure would not hurt them too much?

[spadeflush]

They certainly must have made some changes in the cars' setups after Nico's crash. That might explain the mismatch between the drivers' expectations after practice and the actual race pace.
I think the W02 will fare better in Canada than Monaco. Monaco is really a very unique track and the problems faced there by MGP might not necessarily resurface in Canada. The team will have a tyre solution sooner than later. I still think W02 is better than the W01 but the tyres have messed up the results. What are the chances of the team bringing some "significant" upgrades for Canada?

The Qualy is fixing all major points of the race setup.So it is very likely it was decided to go one notch up with rear cold pressures .something you cannot really check in Q ,as you don´t have long runs.Adding to this with the red flag the session was also torn apart so maybe they felt the higher rear pressure would not hurt them too much?

Thats a possible hypothesis.Thats one confused team of engineers for sure.I wish for Michael's sake they get it right for once.

[Dragonfly]

I don't expect anything better in Canada to my regret.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Lets see what Mercedes bring.

I really think the FEE needs to be implemented in the next 3 races to have a good impact on the season. Saying that, if its rushed and doesnt work they will look silly.
As Brawn said its a fairly complex thing to get right.

But Mercedes stand to gain alot when you see how much they are losing with their current rudimentary system blowing the top of the diffuser. The FEE will certainly give them more to counter their issues with the rear.

Other than that, we have the same problem. New wing will not be added as it will only make the rear worse.

[kalinka]

I don't expect anything better in Canada to my regret.

I'm sorry but I have to say you're right. I really hoped so far that Merc would pick up the pace during first races, but hey! we're already past 6 races. I'm not a Merc fan, but I really hoped that they can spice up the fight between McL/RBR/Ferrari. It seems now all my hopes faded away. I can only hope now that they would perform better at really hihg-speed tracks.

[Raptor22]

I don't expect any miracles for Canada or the rest of the season for that matter.
The car is a dog and they don't understnad any part of its quirks. They are well and truelly lost. Come June they will announce they are shelving dvelopment on the W02 to focus on 2012.
In 2012 they will produce another SH8t box and the excuses start all over again.

The number of cars this team has produced should be fairly indicative that they do no have a clue how to build a competitive F1 car.

I don;t think Schumacher is een eyeing another championship within his initial 3yr contract. I et the feeling he wonders why he even bothered to come out of retirement. The whole "going for a championship" speech was just to create a PR storm and give sponsors some comfort.

IMO W02 is a development of W01 and all the problems with that car were transfered.
5 year project, my foot. Mercedes is not interested in winning. they build cars for old people, not traffic light to traffic light racers.

For teh 2nd time I can remember Merecedes isbringing the German auto industry into disrepute The first time they did so it was called the Chrysler Crossfire

No its poor Schumi and Nico in the Crossfire. Such a shame because Michael is racing so incredibly well. He is really being opportunistic and perhaps overly fair but its great to see.

BTW a car that eats its rear tyres will not go well in Canada. the Montreal race circuit has not fast corners so each time they put their foot down they can say "15mm of tread on the tyre, 15mm of tread. the next time I put my foot on the gas, there'll be 1mm less tyre on my rim."
14mm of tread on my tyre.....

The reason is that even if the others wear their tyres justas fast, the Merc is still 1.000 sec slower. Slow is slow

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

IMO W02 is a development of W01 and all the problems with that car were transfered.

An oversteery car with no rear end bite is a development of an understeery car with no front end bite?

[analist01]

Homemade reaction from Rosberg about the MOnaco disaster weekend

http://www.youtube.com/user/nicorosbergtv

He's quite honest and slightly humoristic about it, but he was disappointed.

[3one]

Merc should really step up with their upgrades... and with the way the rest of the field is improving they need it fast!...

A FEE "might" be more beneficial with the car's short wheelbase which allows a shorter distance from the exhaust to the diffuser, but an RBR exhaust would be easier to implement...

But with the upcoming banning of retard ignition during off-throttle, do we have an exact date on when will this be implemented?

Also I would like to ask the experts here if this would be legal:
1. Would it still be legal to have something of a clutch lever installed in the steering wheel? Somehow allow the driver to just rev the engine during mid corners allowing constant flow in the EBD? I was thinking it would be legal since the drivers foot is still on the gas pedal...