Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2014

[NewtonMeter]

The W05 is testing straight after the GP this weekend, Lewis or Nico in the car?

Really? Where? I assume you mean after this weekend in Bahrain, right?

[Emerson.F]

.....

[gray41]

The W05 is testing straight after the GP this weekend, Lewis or Nico in the car?

Really? Where? I assume you mean after this weekend in Bahrain, right?

Yeah, every team has a different test date after a different GP, I think it might be Sauber in bahrain too?

Do Mercedes have a 3rd driver currently?

[Emerson.F]

The last 1-2 for Mercedes Fangio and Stirling Moss

[Richard]

Great result today with the first 1-2 since the fifties.

That may be true for the badge, but the team from Brackley won four of them in 2009.

[Emerson.F]

True

[myurr]

The trick is probably adding the upgrade, but not showing the additional speed from it.
Presumably, if an upgrade sheds drag, they can turn their engine down correspondingly, potentially helping the longevity of the engine.

There's clearly a golden feedback loop when you're the fastest: you only do one qualifying run, so you have better race tires; you speed off into the distance and run in clean air, etc..

Again why? Why would you want to mask your pace? If you're out front and winning then you can back off, but otherwise there's no point trying to be too clever about it. You'll just trip over yourself.

The more pace you show the more you'll push your competitors into having to take large risks to bridge the gap - some of those gambles may pay off for them but equally there's a chance they end up going down a blind alley and getting it wrong, wasting time and resources. All the while you can continue to steadily bring upgrades to the car moving it forward bit by bit.

[markn93]

It's the same with sand-bagging. I've never really understood the point, so you surprise everyone when they eventually find out, big deal! They wouldn't have been able to do anything about it even if they'd known, so why the need for secrecy?

[eniacon]

The W05 is testing straight after the GP this weekend, Lewis or Nico in the car?

I thought it was agreed that there will be 2 days of testing immediately following 3 of the European GP weekends and also the Abu Dhabi GP? Don't have a link, but I remember seeing that Catalunya will host the first of these tests.

[dans79]

You hide stuff as long as you can when it's easy to copy. Think about the double diffuser in 2009. Early on JB walked it, and then once others copied it, he could barely sniff a podium. If you have an ace up your sleave you hold it till you actually need it.

[beelsebob]

You hide stuff as long as you can when it's easy to copy. Think about the double diffuser in 2009. Early on JB walked it, and then once others copied it, he could barely sniff a podium. If you have an ace up your sleave you hold it till you actually need it.

But you also tend not to introduce aces mid season. No one here is really talking about something along the lines of an f-duct, or double diffuser. Instead, we're talking about normal run of the mill aero refinements. Not shipping them out would be dumb.

[diego.liv]

Pirelli tyre test for Merc is on next Tuesday

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 15535.html

[elf341]

Again why? Why would you want to mask your pace? If you're out front and winning then you can back off, but otherwise there's no point trying to be too clever about it. You'll just trip over yourself.

The more pace you show the more you'll push your competitors into having to take large risks to bridge the gap - some of those gambles may pay off for them but equally there's a chance they end up going down a blind alley and getting it wrong, wasting time and resources. All the while you can continue to steadily bring upgrades to the car moving it forward bit by bit.

Two reasons: increased reliability from not stressing the car, and also the political reason. If you are too dominant, there is a risk the regulations will be urgently changed to eliminate your advantage: cf. 2011 EBD.
There's no reason why you need to win every race 40 seconds in front of your competitors when 5 seconds in front of them will do.

Regarding your second point, I don't agree with you. When there is massive performance deficit, a different kind of thinking emerges from a development perspective: you switch from the conservative normal mode of operation to a deep investigation scruntinizing even simple things that you would normally take for granted.
A good example that knowing the reference point is important for meeting targets is the 2009 McLaren, where the team achieved their target downforce levels through winter development and therefore rested on their laurels, I believe if they had the more realistic target they would probably have been closer to the Brawn when testing began. This might seem counterintuitive if you think humans always work at 100% capacity, but the reality is they don't and benchmarks really do matter.

[SiLo]

Sand-bagging is psychological. The other teams think that they are getting a bit closer and get a bit of confidence, then you go out and pulverise their times and their confidence drops massively. No matter how much you enjoy racing, being soundly beaten is never fun.

[Gridlock]

So does Lewis keep the trophy or will Lowe be taking it back to base?

After all that time at McLaren I'd imagine Lewis was pretty quick to have both "I keep the trophy" and "I get to buy the car" clauses.