Mercedes GP - Inauguration and 1st season

[segedunum]

They were hamstrung last year, when departments within the team were halved and tasks were delegated to the remaining staff. Its the reason they went "conservative" for this year. Less to go wrong with an understaffed factory.

...

It's all about people, and they're going to need experience if they want to make headway there. Bringing new engineers through is vital but you need to set benchmarks from people who have done it. They need an Adrian Newey, Nikolas Tombazis or a Pat Fry who can steady the ship under Ross Brawn. This team has been in real existence for over ten years and they seem to be constantly rebuilding.

I'll be happy to give them a pat on the back and due credit if they make a real jump next year, but given the history of the team through BAR, Honda and now Mercedes it sounds like a case of same old, same old. No details and no one is going to get fired.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

"Brawn repeats the mantra that the forced downsizing of the team as it went from Honda to Brawn in early 2009 led to an under-resourced design team and a conservative, unambitious 2010 car. For 2011, with the support of Mercedes he says, “We have a group of young engineers who want to show their value and we will go back to being ambitious.”

...

[tarzoon]

"Brawn repeats the mantra that the forced downsizing of the team as it went from Honda to Brawn in early 2009 led to an under-resourced design team and a conservative, unambitious 2010 car. For 2011, with the support of Mercedes he says, “We have a group of young engineers who want to show their value and we will go back to being ambitious.”

Does this mean that they're working on the new car? I can't remember any serious update and the rules for next season have already been defined.

[Steven]

Reopened to review the season. We will accept no endless one-to-one argumentation. Any such posts will be deleted without notification.

[xpensive]

Yi-haah! Let the tri-star bash..I mean considering, commence!

Is it now possible, how ever far-fetched as it might seem, that RB and MS has an age-old secret recipe for a car to suit the latter to the xtent we will see the man back in winning shape for 2011?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Yi-haah! Let the tri-star bash..I mean considering, commence!

Is it now possible, how ever far-fetched as it might seem, that RB and MS has an age-old secret recipe for a car to suit the latter to the xtent we will see the man back in winning shape for 2011?

Im putting £100 on Mercedes to do win a race X.
They got to grips with a disappointing car, this gives me hope...feint hope.
Be in no doubt though that should these boys win a race I will be the first to let you know!!!

I think the odds of Mercedes being competitive is 50/50. We shall see if Brawns "exciting" engineers are worth their salt.

[segedunum]

Ahhh, brilliant. Not too much to go on until next season really but I'm sure we'll get to discuss Michael Schumacher's face as he realises that the car is not good enough in winter testing though.

[Steven]

Mind you I have renamed this thread to reflect its changed purpose.
It will not live to see 2011.

[xpensive]

Put it this way, if the x-Brabham spannerman's inability to enforce FIA's rules on flexible aero leaves room for cheating,
RB is the man to take advantage, little doubt about that historically-wise, don't ya'll agree?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Put it this way, if the x-Brabham spannerman's inability to enforce FIA's rules on flexible aero leaves room for cheating,
RB is the man to take advantage, little doubt about that historically-wise, don't ya'll agree?

Such panache Xpensive

My feelings are that Mercedes GP were on a hiding to nothing from the outset. How do you beat Brawns 2009 season? Answer is very simple...you dont.

I wait to see the effects of using Mercedes much vaunted simulation model computers that Brawn mentioned, as well as the tyre experts at Daimler.
Its also very interesting to note that after all the hoo ha surrounding Micheals exit at Monza, its all died down and people accepted he will be there for at least 2 full seasons.

In addition, the team demonstrated the ability to work on problems afflicting the car towards the end of the season. Many mentioned the teams inability to do so in previous guises, whereas now you can see that especially towards the end of the year the team where more competitive, in particular race trim and hard tyre pace.

Haug is now the figure head leaving Brawn to do his thing in Brackley. I remain optimistic for next year even if it means me being berated.

[Raptor22]

this word cheating is really ugly. Cheating means to willfully break the rules and then hide the fact. Does anyone in F1 actually do that? Save for Flavour and Nando conspiring with little Piggy Jnr to create and accident, bring out a safety car and engineer a win I don;t think cheating happens that often.

Rules are written in a way that's intended to have an outcome. But words are often ambiguous and its nearly impossible to create a sentence that cannot be interpretted two ways. thats sport, thats what made F1.
Without interprestation Colin Chapman would never have creaed as many innovative cars as he did, we would not have had two brake pedals or pre-emtive traction management as opposed to traction control.
The devil is always in the details. If interpretation is thrown out then I guess every single F1 designer and race strategist is a cheat.
If thats your view, then why bother watching or discussing from such a negative base?


This year Mercedes clearly had been too conservative. Aerodynamically the car was based on the BGP001 and hence it was bearly faster than that car.

Brawn now has had access to Mercede money for 12 months and has learned to work with a resiurce capped team. He will be strong next year. Schumacher has clearly lost none of his determination or speed so I expect him to be up there in 2011, winning his 8th WDC 20yrs after having started F1Gp racing with JordanGP

[xpensive]

3.15 Aerodynamic influence :
With the exception of the cover described in Article 6.5.2 (when used in the pit lane), the driver adjustable bodywork described in Article 3.18 and the ducts described in Article 11.4, any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance :

- must comply with the rules relating to bodywork ;
- must be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car (rigidly secured means not having any degree of freedom) ;
- must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car.
Any device or construction that is designed to bridge the gap between the sprung part of the car and the ground is prohibited under all circumstances.

I don't know, but it seems clear to me that the 2010 flexible wings are breaking the rules in black and white here,
why I'm certain that RB will be back with an attitude, a front wing with ceramic rails to kiss the ground around the track?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

this word cheating is really ugly. Cheating means to willfully break the rules and then hide the fact. Does anyone in F1 actually do that? Save for Flavour and Nando conspiring with little Piggy Jnr to create and accident, bring out a safety car and engineer a win I don;t think cheating happens that often.

Rules are written in a way that's intended to have an outcome. But words are often ambiguous and its nearly impossible to create a sentence that cannot be interpretted two ways. thats sport, thats what made F1.
Without interprestation Colin Chapman would never have creaed as many innovative cars as he did, we would not have had two brake pedals or pre-emtive traction management as opposed to traction control.
The devil is always in the details. If interpretation is thrown out then I guess every single F1 designer and race strategist is a cheat.
If thats your view, then why bother watching or discussing from such a negative base?


This year Mercedes clearly had been too conservative. Aerodynamically the car was based on the BGP001 and hence it was bearly faster than that car.

Brawn now has had access to Mercede money for 12 months and has learned to work with a resiurce capped team. He will be strong next year. Schumacher has clearly lost none of his determination or speed so I expect him to be up there in 2011, winning his 8th WDC 20yrs after having started F1Gp racing with JordanGP

+1

Xpensive,
You dont think the flexing wing to be as controversial? It shouldnt flex as per the spirit of the law, there will be a miniscule amount of flex sure, but to the extent of Red Bull?
Does this therefore mean they are cheating too?

The DDD was part of Honda Williams and Toyota. Williams and Toyota were nowhere last year too.
Its all in the game to qutoe a phrase from The Wire

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Is 2011 when the 400 limit of staff is due to be enforced?

This will be a big bonus for Mercedes when the bigger teams need to cut department sizes.
Any opinion on this or links...seems a dark secret at the minute.

[NewtonMeter]

Haug is now the figure head leaving Brawn to do his thing in Brackley. I remain optimistic for next year even if it means me being berated.

You and me both buddy, you and me both.... [-o<