Wanted to jump in here quickly as I wanted to put this down in writing before qualifying.
As one of the uber diehard Merc fans on F1Tech, this season bears a significance the others and I have been watching and waiting to arrive since 2011.
As we all know, Merc purchased Brawn in an era when everyone thought a strong RRA was on the horizon and hilarity ensued.
In 2011, after an embarrassing German GP, Brawn met with Dr. Z and was able to secure a budget allowing Merc to finally take the fight to the front runners. Of course, takes time for money to make it to the track. Costa and Willis were hired and the consensus on here was we would not see the full effect of this money until 2013. Obviously our community was correct as we saw Merc's jump in the standings.
Throughout it all however, Merc fans have had one little factoid niggling us in the back of our minds. Merc is a works team. The draw of this is the idea of seeing an F1 chassis and engine literally built for one another. That is their most major engineering trump card, engine integration. The Mercedes V8, however, was originally built for the MP4 bloodline, not Brackley. With homologation, what we had were Brixworth and Brackley working to integrate a V8 designed for a different car. That is why this season is so significant for Merc and the fans. When we hear "Mercedes works team", we think of a works car, and the W05 will be our first true, no caveats, works car.
My point? Those caveats are why I wanted to write this post before this season gets started. As a Mercedes fan, we've spent the last several years defending our team and its shortcoming by ultimately saying, "Just wait." --And here we are. That excuse is gone. All excuses are gone. This is, for the first time since they returned in 2010, the Mercedes works team organized and operating in the manner we expected it too when the first press releases came out after the 2009 season. A chassis and engine built for one another backed by a budget and depth of engineering one expects from this level of marque.
For better or worse, us Merc fans have no where to hide should the team underperform this season, and we will have every reason to grin should they take the championships.
Hopefully Ferrari isn't sandbagging.
Thanks, and on with the show.