W02 and W01 did not look conservative compared to the opposition but both cars lacked in the Aero efficiency area and W01 had bad traction on top of that.
Very clearly the "tyre issues" Brawn had already in 2009 were made responsible for every glitch and lack of performance in 2009 and 2010 even in 2011 we have heard them talking a bit too much about tyre related issues.
BUT:these are not the reason for the gap in performance to RedBull as it looks.The real reason for their position in the pecking order is to be found in the car itself which does not produce downforcw of the same quality as their competitors ,or in other words for the drag they produce they just don´t have the downforce ,and stable downforce.
We can assume they now have solved all the thermal issues they have experienced at the start of the year ,but still the car is a second per lap slow on ultimate speed.(If REDBull is throwing away 8 tenths of ultimate speed for race speed the same has to be true for Mercedes so the gap is what it is)...possibly it is less than this as surely one of the two drivers would gamble and go for a qualy setup too find himself at the sharp end of the grid?
The car is not conservative per se: hydraulic suspension interconnection ,short wheelbase,radiator layout ,exhaust positioning ..the tech team have failed to concentrate on new technical solutions that could make the difference.
Without a doubt ,Mercedes was a complete fail in exhaust development over winter.
They spend a lot of time developing their own system and now in the second half of the year copied the RB style immediatly could better all their original work ..so the development direction decided right at the start was wrong -see Renault falling into the same trap toying their own idea...when Mclaren did the reasonable thing ,droppped the octopus like a hot potato and concentrated on the right technical solution.
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