Team: Bob Bell (TD), Aldo Costa (ED), Geoff Willis (Technology Director), Andrew Shovlin (CRE), Simon Cole (CTE), Ron Meadows (SD), Matthew Deane (CM), Ross Brawn (TP), Nick Fry (CEO), Toto Wolff (Exec Director), Andy Cowell (MD of powertrain),
Drivers: Nico Rosberg (9), Lewis Hamilton (10) Team name: Mercedes AMG Petronas
A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe."Murray Walker, San Marino 1985
BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson in Jerez
"it's clear from Hamilton's comments on Wednesday that they need it. He admitted the car does not even have as much downforce as last year's McLaren. That might be a wake-up call for Mercedes."
yet Toto said that by the times there competitive. Either Hamilton is calling everyone bluff or Merc clearly need to wake up and smell the coffee because lewis pushed like f##k to set that time whilst overs are cruising
Well, i don't think it is a big suprise that the new Merc has still less downforce that the old Mclaren. We all know that aero is the weak point for Mercedes.
The gap was more than a second a lap by the end of November, which is only 2 and a half month ago. You usually don't gain as much in such a short period. Most of the current cars are evolutions of last year's cars, teams will be planning a big upgrade for the last test.
By the way, interesting comment from Gary Anderson about the front wing design:
"I've been saying since June last year that there was something wrong with their front-wing philosophy. All the teams are struggling to get enough downforce from the front wing, but Mercedes have been taking downforce-producing bits off it. From what I know the bits do, the pieces missing are worth about 40kg of downforce. That equates to about 60kg of lost downforce at the back, because it's a 40:60 ratio, and so that's 100kg of downforce they don't have that they could. That's worth 0.8secs a lap."
Last edited by stefan_ on 07 Feb 2013, 14:06, edited 1 time in total.
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe."Murray Walker, San Marino 1985