Mercedes GP 2011

[Gaara]

There's a lot of reports saying MSC will retire at the end of this year

http://www.f1zone.net/news/coulthard-ti ... cher/8133/

[siskue2005]

There's a lot of reports saying MSC will retire at the end of this year

http://www.f1zone.net/news/coulthard-ti ... cher/8133/

i dont see anywhere in that link that MSC will retire at this years end!

[Byronrhys]

Thats just DC getting off on Di Resta like he always does.

[marcush.]

Schumacher is made of a different wood than DC no doubt about it.(even though they share some similarities in the chin area...)
Schumacher will not quit if he is not asked to do so by the board.
At this time di Resta ,Sutil or whoever you would put into that cockpit could do any better ...we just don´t know if even Alonso or Hamilton would shine more.
Schumacher has kept Rosberg honest and in sight all the time ,so what..Sure Michael will bag that elusive win ,or even a podium if there is a half chance to do so but at this time the car is a full second slow and that is not his fault at all .

[xpensive]

@ marcush & JET;
As a seasoned design engineering manager, I am quite autocratic in my decision process, but I would never ever make a call without properly understanding the issue, perhaps not in detail, for that I have specialists at hand, but in general terms.

This is perhaps why I have problems with a machine operator turned F3 mechanic, turned windtunnel tecnician, turned Technical director for not one but three major Formula One teams. Hands-on xperience is valuable and can take you far, but not that far.

[munudeges]

I think nowadays Newey doesn't go down and dirty to the nitty gritty design work, though I could be wrong. It seems to me that he will be setting the "direction." i.e. he'd be telling the designers what concepts they should be working on, and in what direction.

Indeed he does. John Barnard was quite a micro-manager by all accounts but the way that Newey seems to work is that he knows what he wants the end result to be but leaves his group of people to decide how to get there and what they have to deal with. I think that's why he's moved pretty effortlessly to being a Technical Director where most might have thought he couldn't do it. He also learned from his early mistake at Red Bull which was to focus too much on design and expect that to get results. He's always had that trait though.

Improve aerodynamic efficiency? Get the car closer to the ground. Result? Active suspension. Too much drag? Increase engine power. Result? The Renault engines being the best things out there in the 90s. Tighter rear end for aerodynamics? Go pull-rod. How to get specifically get those end results wasn't specified by Newey. His demands pull along all aspects of the car though.

[xpensive]

In all honesty mun, I happen to believe that Newey is a little more detail-oriented than that. With the scenario you are portraying, it could easily be xtrapolated into a very general direction given, such as; "Design a very fast and reliable car", no?

[munudeges]

I would imagine he would tell people what he wants the end result to be and vaguely how he wants to get there - get the car, or the front wing, closer to the ground etc. He seems to be able to apply rather a lot of pressure in getting what he wants.

[siskue2005]

"I'll certainly be racing next year, that is definite," Schumacher said at a Mercedes' function.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/motor-sport ... 6114927373 =D> =D>

[Byronrhys]

http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Merc ... 28089.html

What they should have said at the start of 2011 would have been a modest approach and understandable.

[marcush.]

X,you get my nod there...but maybe Brawn was just a natural +genius and did swallow the necessary information going by .It´s not like information and knowledge is university exclusive .But you got a point there.

As for Newey..my view of things is he knows exactly how the finished product will look .I´m pretty sure he does this alone at first and then his team is brought in to come up with their demands and ideas challenging his concept.
He always states ,that his designs grow in his head only and gestation does take some time before he even starts to put a line on paper .His main aims are to design for the future not really the car for next year so his work is anticipating what will be the next trend and he is ready to integrate it.
Pretty much shows why RB is struggling with KERS.He made an allowance for it but not really believing in the benefit of the technology in the set ofd rules available.Voila ,we got a boxy thingy attached to a streamlined car ..

[xpensive]

The German marque’s competition director Norbert Haug made a similar admission.
"Under normal circumstances, you do not go from fourth to first in one jump," he said.
Mercedes’ board, however, has the patience to wait, according to head of group research Thomas Weber.
"We will give (the team) the time that is necessary to get to the top," he said.

What kind of corporate bullsh*t is the above, when they bought the outfit they were at the top in a rather convincing fashion, having won eight races as well as both the WDC and WCC! Guess that poor Daimler guy Weber just had to say what he said?

@ marcush;
An interesting thing here is that Adrian Newey quite recently uttered the very same thing as John Barnard said 15 years ago when returning to Ferrari, that he always begins a new layout on a traditional draftboard, xplaining that nothing could replace the feeling of lead pencil on mylar. My kinda guys, both of them!

But Newey also said that Ron Dennis hated that practice, when striving for his dream of the paperless office!

[marcush.]

Mercedes had more than their Fingertips deep into the w01 and w02 methinks otherwise no question heads would have faced the chop long time ago..You would not look on if you were relieved of a considerable amount of €s by Brawn and coming home with two flawed designs in a row..I would say the route was decided over Brawns head and he has aired his doubts about it all along ...but they knew better.

As for paperless offices ..heard that but in the end I´m always amused how far you can get approaching people pesonally (not vie mail or phone)drawing up a sketch is
always a big help to people who lack imagination and feel for the task..

Already now the early prototype phase is only "produced" in virtual environment in automotive development ...at Mercedes this is reality...

[xpensive]

Mercedes had more than their Fingertips deep into the w01 and w02 methinks otherwise no question heads would have faced the chop long time ago..You would not look on if you were relieved of a considerable amount of €s by Brawn and coming home with two flawed designs in a row..I would say the route was decided over Brawns head and he has aired his doubts about it all along ...but they knew better.
...

We discussed this before marcush and I'm getting more and more convinced that the above is the case, coming up with radical ideas such as a go-kart wheelbase, while probably thinking "Those old farts must all be idiots!", is so very rookie.

A team of young guns in Stuttgart working in a virtual environment perhaps?

[marcush.]

obviously I cannot prove but it damn looks like it-plus Schumacher talking about the new experience of talking in his home language when discussing technical matters -before
he even sat in the car.... makes me believe Brawn has sent a base package of W01 to Sindelfingen already in 2009 even before Mercedes committed officially to buying the team.They transferred everything into the automotive mandatory CatiaV5 R19 platform and did their first design on it based on the BrawnGP work already done.
why else would Brawn say his guys had not done a complete car before W02 ?Maybe that´s the reason why W02 was Sooooo late with everything...and everything added now looks so touched up..the Vanilla car was maybe what Brawn got from Stuttgart????