Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[FoxHound]

It could be that some engineering staff at MGP just hates W03....
wouldn´t you make the back to back test at the start of your project?
but then even RedBull did fall back to their old exhaaust solution after some races....so apart from being impossibly late there is nothing wrong with that back to back approach.Effectively they fell back a good 6 months due to pursuing stubbornly their petproject ddrs...

Agree with this, however I wouldn't call them stubborn. There was value in the DDRS, we know this because others have copied it. I think the best thing that can happen to the team is a clean start which is what they are pursuing.
If 2013 goes wrong, then they have another chance in 2014.
If I where to bet, I would say Mercedes will probably remain 5th/6th fastest team in 2013 sadly. But If they gear everything now for 2014, we could have another BGP001 with the amount of brainpower they recruited.

[marcush.]

It could be that some engineering staff at MGP just hates W03....
wouldn´t you make the back to back test at the start of your project?
but then even RedBull did fall back to their old exhaaust solution after some races....so apart from being impossibly late there is nothing wrong with that back to back approach.Effectively they fell back a good 6 months due to pursuing stubbornly their petproject ddrs...

Agree with this, however I wouldn't call them stubborn. There was value in the DDRS, we know this because others have copied it. I think the best thing that can happen to the team is a clean start which is what they are pursuing.
If 2013 goes wrong, then they have another chance in 2014.
If I where to bet, I would say Mercedes will probably remain 5th/6th fastest team in 2013 sadly. But If they gear everything now for 2014, we could have another BGP001 with the amount of brainpower they recruited.

I really was optimistic when it all started -but after all those years I simply have lost faith in their ability to stop the trot and turn the corner.
They seem to have a almost perfect sense for taking the wrong decisions and riding dead horses and still justifying their decisions emphatically when it´s obvious they simply did not grasp the facts as quick as others did.
A big team is not quicker in reaction it is slower ,so my hopes have turned to zero.Surprise me ,please.

[FoxHound]

Marcush

Let's see. I agree it has been painful, but what can you do?
Time and time again we see that Aero is Mercedes greatest downfall. The reaction here is quite impressive marcush, even you have to admit it.
New simulator. Upgraded Windtunnel. Bigois out. Elliott in.

It's a big change. Especially when you consider that the W03 was still a Bigois baby. To make it even more difficult, they adopted their philosophy for DDRS.
It's no excuse, they should still be doing better, but they are at least making the changes necessary to be able to take their challenge forward.

[Richard]

They seem to have a almost perfect sense for taking the wrong decisions

To offer a glimmer of hope, Lotus seemed to head that way with the FEE and banned magic brake-suspension interaction. McLaren had similar behaviour with the F-duct and U pods, gimmicks that looked good, but were not a magic bullet like the DDD.

However this year Lotus & McLaren have managed to get faster cars by avoiding outrageous gimmicks. So maybe there is hope for Merc if they've managed to clear out the people who were dazzled by the SWB and DDRS gimmicks.

[FoxHound]

With conservative Costa also there, maybe you are right Richard.

This cannot keep going on. Not for the level of investment and people involved.

[clipsy1H]

With conservative Costa also there, maybe you are right Richard.

This cannot keep going on. Not for the level of investment and people involved.

or YES! i mean... how can change this situation in few months ??? do anyone think Red Bull Ferrari or McLaren are sleeping?? ok... w04 will be a new step forward maybe bigger than this but after few races they will lose pace like this year because (same happened with Brawn GP).
i still don't understand how Lotus manage to exploit Coanda at maximum in just 1 races and Merc can't do that in 4-5

[Lurk]

@richard: Agreed with Lotus but McLaren didn't make a mistake with F-Duct or U-pod.
1/ F-duct was powerfull, everybody was forced to implement their own F-duct solution.
2/ U-pod were supposed to work with the "octopus", which never worked properly. Problem was a too ambitous exhaust layout, U-pod were just the consequence. Still, I agree they were looking for a magic bullet.


BTW, DDD was a magic bullet only because all the teams had the same great idea but half of them also had the bad one's to ask Charlie's permission. Same for the Lotus brake-suspension interaction, except we'll never know if it would have been a magic bullet.
I just hope for the sake of Lewis and Nico that MGP has understand their mistakes.

[Cocles]

On the American broadcast of FP2, Will Buxton mentioned that he had interviewed Sam Bird, who said he had just flown in that morning, because Mercedes has had him on the simulator almost non-stop testing out new components to be used on the car this weekend.

[clipsy1H]

for tomorrow race and toady quali they must run with old exhaust ..... in FP1 was a huge difference between old and coanda!!! like i said before, every update doesn't work for them. ...

[alvinkhorfire]

Awesome speed by Michael Schumacher! =D> Where does that pace come from? Let's hope that he can keep up the pace in Q3. [-o<

[clipsy1H]

Awesome speed by Michael Schumacher! =D> Where does that pace come from? Let's hope that he can keep up the pace in Q3. [-o<

P6 .... with little luck could be on P4-5

[fiohaa]

Awesome speed by Michael Schumacher! =D> Where does that pace come from? Let's hope that he can keep up the pace in Q3. [-o<

P6 .... with little luck could be on P4-5

so that'll be P10-P11 in the race.

[Ganxxta]

Awesome speed by Michael Schumacher! =D> Where does that pace come from? Let's hope that he can keep up the pace in Q3. [-o<

P6 .... with little luck could be on P4-5

Well Grosjean gets +5 so he will be theoretically on P5, but he will get a +10 himself too for blocking Alonso

But wonderful drive P6 compared to P17


Poor old guy can't keep up with the young ones...

[alvinkhorfire]

Congratulation, Michael Schumacher! P5 on the grid tomorrow. =D> Hopefully, he scores decent points. [-o< Is he running the old exhaust or the newer one?

[clipsy1H]

Congratulation, Michael Schumacher! P5 on the grid tomorrow. =D> Hopefully, he scores decent points. [-o< Is he running the old exhaust or the newer one?

the newer one!! but like Ganxxta said!! he will get 5-10 place penalty but in my opinion he doesn't block Alonso!! there's just 1 way to stay on circuit. For me is normal incidents but he will get for sure penalty because anyone wants a championship battle in Brazil so Fernando need to be in front.