Mercedes AMG F1 W03

[Maelstrom]

It is impossible to provide technical solutions to a problem that knocked out a whole team like Ferrari last year. If you do not want it to recognize is your problem, but the car this year is clearly a step backward, not forward.

Was Mercedes strong in Melbourne and Sepang? No.

But you can hardly write off their whole season. They have a good technical team in place. They have two intelligent drivers in Schumacher and Rosberg. Give them time to improve. You surely didn't expect them on podiums from race 1 after finishing fourth last year?

The most telling thing so far is that Schumacher doesn't seem worried. He seems far more positive this year than the last two. When last year he realised he had a bad car he said that he didn't expect to win or compete with top teams. This year if he says the car is a step forward then it is.

If you as a Mercedes fan are disappointed they probably are far more disappointed. I am sure they are working hard even now to fix the problem. If by mid season they still haven't fixed it then you can start saying that its a crap car and Mercedes is doomed.

[clipsy1H]

i don't know if they can win or be on podium in China or Bhrain but for sure in Spain this car will be much faster than others in race (mb fight with Mclaren for win)
This year for sure Michael or Nico win 1 race (hope at MONZA SPA OR Hockenheim)

[Byron R]

With regards to tire degradation , does anyone have an pictures of the tires during pits tops? Watching in slo mo they appeared to not have high wear, but the tire changes were quick and team members blocked most of the picture. That would be a good indicator of their issue. High wear or insufficient operating temperature.

[Ferraripilot]

It is impossible to provide technical solutions to a problem that knocked out a whole team like Ferrari last year. If you do not want it to recognize is your problem, but the car this year is clearly a step backward, not forward.

Was Mercedes strong in Melbourne and Sepang? No.

But you can hardly write off their whole season. They have a good technical team in place. They have two intelligent drivers in Schumacher and Rosberg. Give them time to improve. You surely didn't expect them on podiums from race 1 after finishing fourth last year?

The most telling thing so far is that Schumacher doesn't seem worried. He seems far more positive this year than the last two. When last year he realised he had a bad car he said that he didn't expect to win or compete with top teams. This year if he says the car is a step forward then it is.

If you as a Mercedes fan are disappointed they probably are far more disappointed. I am sure they are working hard even now to fix the problem. If by mid season they still haven't fixed it then you can start saying that its a crap car and Mercedes is doomed.

Michael and the team know this to be nothing more than a teething issue. Michael is a forthcoming fellow since coming out of retirement and he has a brain-trust technical team behind him so he is not in any way worried. The car is extremely capable, just look at the S1 time at Malaysia which was massively quicker than anyone else during qualifying, this proves the mechanical grip and balance is very very good on the car.

This issue with rear tire heating simply needs to be sorted and the first two races were not venues which could really allow this to be done correctly, and this makes Mercedes as a team nothing more than a victim of circumstance at that point, so let's all be cautious in pointing any fingers.

Tire heating is something even Nascar guys can fix so let's all calm down and put the doomsday box away. This will be fixed by a rear geometry change or a stiffer rear sway-bar arrangement is my guess.

[Giblet]

I went back a few pages and didn't see it posted.

[Gridlock]

Is it normal to see drivers adjusting brake bias between their launch and the first corner? Schuey did, and he spends a lot of his lap fiddling with it. If indeed its brake bias that's being adjusted down by his left knee...

He also definitely deactivates DRS early into mid-speed corners, before the braking point, presumably to re-attach airflow somewhere. This kind of messes with my assumption that the FW stalling is designed solely to allow more progressive and earlier activation of DRS out of corners and suggests it bestows a straight line advantage too, no?

It's a fascinating system, and I'm not convinced its just MB running it already.

[Leon]

I do not see such big problem with tires as want to present. the Sauber were lucky in this race because of tactics and circumstances and similar to Sebastian Vettel in Monza 2008. Most likely Sauber hardly will manage to repeat such success. even such teams as McLaren and RedBull didn't manage to react to race conditions properly and Ferrari won with right call and maybe some politics. Compared to last year even mighty RedBull faces problems despite their huge potential and resources. In top the pack is very tight.I remember the Brawn's words that even with 2012 rules it is possible to blow the diffuser but for some reason they didn't risk or didn't want to risk an extreme exhaust a-la RedBull/Sauber/McLaren and probably they will implement it then when it will be more clear that they have a stable and responsive car ready to such change, and not only.

[raymondu999]

I do not see such big problem with tires as want to present. the Sauber were lucky in this race because of tactics and circumstances and similar to Sebastian Vettel in Monza 2009.

Sebastian Vettel in Monza 2009 was very anonymous?

Unless you mean his 2010 drive where he only made his one pitstop at the end of the race - completing all but the last lap on a set of supersofts and leapfrogging everyone except the McLarens and Ferraris (who were demolishing the field at a second a lap anyways). Or unless you mean his wet victory of 2008.

[Leon]

Or unless you mean his wet victory of 2008.

Of course, sorry, my mistake. Corrected.

[JMN]

With regards to the DRS and the ducting system: isn't it possible the primary flow is leached from the airbox (similarly to Red Bulls f-duct) either primary or secondary inlet with the rear wing duct serving as the control flow for the switch?

[siskue2005]

I think this is quite interesting, but at the same time quite a funny thing to happen....

Nico Rosberg baffled by tyre problems in the Malaysian Grand Prix
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98407

"I was P4 after the red flag and pitstop, and from then on I thought I could do something good this time. But then I started going backwards - and big time.

"[With] the first inters I had to come into the pits because I thought my rear tyre was game over completely. So I come into the pits, put a new set of inters on and the pit crew said to me that my inters were brand new still, so I thought, what is going on? They felt completely destroyed. It was strange.

I know it was mentioned here before
So now we can safely say that its not tyre degradation, The car is under working the tyres
Like ferrari 2011

[raymondu999]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=valZq2y6A-A[/youtube]

[Gridlock]

Sky has the SkyPad, BBC has, umm a pad.

They both have the same sources though, evidently

[strad]

??????
WHY would you want the whole car to rise up?

[raymondu999]

Sky has the SkyPad, BBC has, umm a pad

Come on they're not THAT bad. They have that orange day-glo marker thing too