Mercedes GP W02

[Mr.S]

Just saw the new time. The long runs were super SLOW though. Very High 1-40's.

Anyways the car was pretty slow the last 2 days.Pretty slow,whatever fuel they were testing.The track has got quicker,last year it was 2s quicker within 1 day or 2. This season even with loosing EBD Sam Bird should have done a much quicker time.He is 1s off Nico's pace,after 3 full days of running(no set-up compromise like all drivers have to do somewhat for a race).

Car designed around exhaust blowing sucks when not exhaust blowing. News at 11.

Thats why Mclaren lost so much of time on Silverstone.

Mercedes W02 was not designed around EBD as Brawn admitted & said they dont even get their EBD as good as the others(in other blow the diffuser as efficiently). The side-wise exhausts was probably never meant to work with the EBD.

If they tailor make their car with the exhaust they will probably gain more lap time,for me Bird is still 2.5-3 off the pace. Rosberg's time was set on a lap where had to make certain compromises for the race.

For me with the track getting so much quicker he is still 2.5-3s off the pace & no EBD will give him that much of time.

[astracrazy]

I think its just the testing that there doing. The car is the 4th best out there over the whole season overall. fact. It was also the 4th fastest car in quali (7th and 8th) as well. I don't see it as a dog.

[Tyler]

I don't understand why Merc didn't go down the path of developing their EBD for the start of 2010 when it was clear that Red Bull had already started on this part in 2010.
It has been the biggest performance decider in 2011.
I still don't think the W02 is a dog - as Brawn said in that interview , being the 4th fastest team is not a sign of incompetence.
Bearing in mind the resource difference between them and the top 3 and the fact that the top 3 have been established a lot longer. I don't think 4th place in their second year is bad at all.

[Mr.S]

The resource difference between the TOP 3 & Mercedes is nothing compared to the resource difference between Mercedes & a Toro Rosso & a Force India. These guys have a budget of around 60-70 Million whereas Merc are rumoured to have a budget of 200 Million.

Very little infrastructure,Toro Rosso was it not the ertswhile Minardi team which finished last while Mercedees brought a Honda team which was pumped by years of massive money.

This was the 1st ever car designed by Toro Rosso fully on its own.It's really a matter of shame to see Mercedes fighting with Toro Rosso & Force India.Really is,atleast for me & without Nico-Michael Mercedes would probably have finished behind those guys. Toro Rosso-Force India barely has half the size of staff of Mercedes,big difference in the budget for testing(introducing newer parts & expensive technology),quality of wind-tunnel & recruting highly paid engineers. HUGE DIFFERENCE>

[Tyler]

Is there any performance difference in the fuels that the teams use?
For e.g. could the Total fuel that Red Bull use be better than the Petronas fuel Mercedes use or is it not really a factor, especially given that the Merc engine is more powerful than the Renault?

[Morteza]

Is there any performance difference in the fuels that the teams use?
For e.g. could the Total fuel that Red Bull use be better than the Petronas fuel Mercedes use or is it not really a factor, especially given that the Merc engine is more powerful than the Renault?

I don't think fuel is the thing to blame here. I mean all 4 top teams have different fuel suppliers. RB uses Total, McLaren uses Mobil and Ferrari uses Shell. Mercedes is the only Mercedes-powered team that doesn't use Mobil. All Ferrari-powered and Renault-powered teams use Shell and Total as fuel suppliers respectively. Mercedes uses Petronas since it is also their title sponsor. I wonder if Mercedes would have used Mobil had Petroans not been their title sponsor. Brawn GP also used Mobil. The thing is that even Mercedes DTM teams are now using Petronas if I'm not mistaken.

[Morteza]

Double post.

[Cocles]

Is there any performance difference in the fuels that the teams use?
For e.g. could the Total fuel that Red Bull use be better than the Petronas fuel Mercedes use or is it not really a factor, especially given that the Merc engine is more powerful than the Renault?

The special, focused attention Mercedes GP receives from Petronas was one of the more popular explanations I saw online (that didn't reek of "tin foil hat") as to why Mercedes GP had more top end speed than McLaren at Monza. Note that it was still just a guess. It's also logical to assume that Mercedes GP receives more advice from Mercedes HPE than the customer teams.

[yener]

Lap times are saying nothing right now. The 2012 car will be all different.
They are just trying and testing new parts.

Just like the new exhaust. They will look at the data.. put in the cfg and will finetune it. Or maybe they will think it sucks and create an new one based on the data they had today.

What i am trying to say is.. dont take this test too serious. Everyone is testing, playing (hide and seek), watching what the others do and collecting all the data they can.

[MIKEY_!]

Is there any performance difference in the fuels that the teams use?
For e.g. could the Total fuel that Red Bull use be better than the Petronas fuel Mercedes use or is it not really a factor, especially given that the Merc engine is more powerful than the Renault?

There are limits on the ingredients that can go into the fuel. There shouldn't be a real difference.

As for the lack of speed without EBD: The car may not have been optimized for the EBD but the diffuser probably has been. Unless they went to the trouble of changing the diffuser for this test then I wouldn't worry too much. And then there's the potential for difference in drivers between teams.

[raymondu999]

I'd actually think they're gathering data on what running those exhausts will be like so they actually know WHAT to change on the diffuser

[MIKEY_!]

Exactly.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I agree ray.

I'm not exactly sure if we will see any ingenuity in this area(exhausts) given the ruling for 2012.
I expect everyone to have very similar interpretations of the exhaust which should take us back to 2009 spec.

Knowing this, the team is probably just verifying where the DF levels need to be tweaked and where there is a loss.
Verifying what they think they know.

[Cocles]

Is there any performance difference in the fuels that the teams use?
For e.g. could the Total fuel that Red Bull use be better than the Petronas fuel Mercedes use or is it not really a factor, especially given that the Merc engine is more powerful than the Renault?

There are limits on the ingredients that can go into the fuel. There shouldn't be a real difference.

Keep in mind that the fuel suppliers, or at least in the case of Petronas, also supply their teams with engine lubricants, and horsepower can be found by optimizing those.

[LionKing]

Isn't Mercedes using Mobil even though their main sponsor is Petronas?