Mercedes GP 2011

[Mr.S]

Scarbs echoes my feelings on this:

Merc GP: Brawn, Bell, Costa, Willis. Technical superteam or too many cooks in the kitchen?

You've got three people, all used to being technical heads in their own right, one at the same team, all with pretty similar sounding, very fudgy job descriptions - Technology Director and Engineering Director? It sounds like the politics have already started with the job titles.

Actually they would only same to trolls. Costa was always a very good engineer but never a man fit enough to be TD,his experience has always been on the Mechanical side & he always works better under somebody

Willis's supposed expertise is in aerodynamics & taking care of windtunnels,CFD & stuff.

Bob is a THE TECHNICAL DIRECTOR in charge,his specialization is aerodynamics.

Both Willis & Costa report to Bob bell.It's not a decision by committee. Bob Bell is the leader which has been made clear & it is said he identified areas or weakness & asked for such recruitments.

Another thing Mclaren & ferrari pretty much doing the same thing. Paddy-Same Michael, Rory working with Pat Fry & others. All 3 teams are taking on Newey as a technical team & not a 1 man show. The last 2 years have shown that is VERY VERY difficult to beat Newey alone.

[Mr.S]

We had similar problems here in Australia with a new football team. They came in with shed loads of cash, recruited all the top players from the other teams and ... wait for it ... lost every single game!

Highly irrelevant & meaningless example. The players actually play. Football is a compelete team-sport & depends a lot on the manager,probably as much as on the players. Not to mention the example has 0 similarities with Formula.

[Hemsy]

We had similar problems here in Australia with a new football team. They came in with shed loads of cash, recruited all the top players from the other teams and ... wait for it ... lost every single game!

Highly irrelevant & meaningless example. The players actually play. Football is a compelete team-sport & depends a lot on the manager,probably as much as on the players. Not to mention the example has 0 similarities with Formula.

Couldn't agree more! Football & F1 have very little in common. If anything egos are more likely to exist between drivers within the team because although F1 is a team sport at the end of the day you are competing against your team mate.

[MIKEY_!]

Actually you kind of proved my point. Teamwork is the key, which is what stuffed the football guys (didn't make that very clear, sorry), there is a risk of these great F1 people not working together and getting a bad result, which (imo) may have contributed to MGP's previous troubles. And you need a good manager to keep things together (who also must be able to work with his team)

BTW we are talking Australia so BIG egos lol.

[Mr.S]

Again do not agree. Mercedes previous failures was probably due to the lack of a competent Technical Director & not too many talented guys clashing.

Besides it's not just team-work. It's a lot of leadership as well. I believe Brawn can do that,Brawn can marshall talented people well even though people may have the mis-conception that he himself was the chief architect behind the cars. Bell does not have big ego,shuns the spotlight & is good at managing resources. Neither did Aldo Costa ever seem to be as a spotlight craving them.

They all are in some respects low-profile people who just want to do their job. All are new to Mercedes & will take a while to settle for sure but Mercedes will definitely close the gap. Now Mercedes have no excuse to fail. This whole 5-6 year old crap will stop.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

The same people critizing merc for not having enough are now changing tact to point their guns in the direction of the team having too much.

I could have guessed as much.

[Donuts]

The same people critizing merc for not having enough are now changing tact to point their guns in the direction of the team having too much.

I could have guessed as much.

Let's call it Red Bull syndrome!

(But there's a resource restriction agreement so this debate should'nt be as heated as in earlier years.)

[Cocles]

The same people critizing merc for not having enough are now changing tact to point their guns in the direction of the team having too much.

I could have guessed as much.

What funny is I honestly don't think anyone in this thread is a troll. I think the naysayers genuinely despise this team, which is weird because MercGP is less than two years old, so what could they have possibly done to garner such dislike? Maybe we're really just dealing with your typical brawn/schumi haters who are now transferring their dislike onto the new Merc team.

If it's not that then I can only guess it's because if Merc succeeds then that means either McLaren, Ferrari, or Redbull must fail and fall out of the top three.

It'd be great if someone would fess up, and explain what their beef is.

Either way, Schumi still says it best:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64/schumi.png/

[siskue2005]

The same people critizing merc for not having enough are now changing tact to point their guns in the direction of the team having too much.

I could have guessed as much.

What funny is I honestly don't think anyone in this thread is a troll. I think the naysayers genuinely despise this team, which is weird because MercGP is less than two years old, so what could they have possibly done to garner such dislike? Maybe we're really just dealing with your typical brawn/schumi haters who are now transferring their dislike onto the new Merc team.

If it's not that then I can only guess it's because if Merc succeeds then that means either McLaren, Ferrari, or Redbull must fail and fall out of the top three.

It'd be great if someone would fess up, and explain what their beef is.

Either way, Schumi still says it best:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64/schumi.png/

You hit the nail on it's head =D>

[munudeges]

Well, Scarbs doesn't think it's stretching to think about the 'too many cooks' phrase and neither do I. Alas, recruiting people is one thing but getting them organised into a coherent and workable group is quite another. There are those of us who have made that point very clear throughout.

Technical, Engineering and Technology Directors, and they have to specifically point out who 'reports' to who because it's so confusing? Give me a break.

[Byronrhys]

Well, Scarbs doesn't think it's stretching to think about the 'too many cooks' phrase and neither do I. Alas, recruiting people is one thing but getting them organised into a coherent and workable group is quite another. There are those of us who have made that point very clear throughout.

Technical, Engineering and Technology Directors, and they have to specifically point out who 'reports' to who because it's so confusing? Give me a break.

Actually Costa and Willis's roles are pretty, and they fit Willis in without clashing with Loic, but now for me Bell's role is not clear, I get it he will be the ring master of all but still...

[raymondu999]

I guess he will be the "navigator" of sorts. The unifying point. The One ring to rule them all.

[marcush.]

I rate Willis and Costa as I do rate Bell .
I cannot imagine any of those would commit to a soso distribution of responsibilities but they clearly see this as an opportunity to work in their special field of expertise4 for a manufacturer (recources galore available).

As all three have worked as Technuical directors -they know very well how hard that job is .They all have gone full circle as well ... with small teams getting bigger ,working with a small team working as a manufacturer team. I certainly have a good feeling about this move at least now it is definite Ross is out of the technical decision side of it for good.

[dren]

And best of all...Nick Fry wasn't mentioned once

[raymondu999]

Why would he? Nick Fry was never part of the team; rather running the commercial side of it.