Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[mahesh248f1]

notably Schumacher has outruled himself from challenging for wins ...i think they really want to avoid the favorites role I´m looking forward to Melbourne...

Would you dare to say that after saying that in 2010 and 2011?

i think they are very optimistic inside .

I second that , do you think Nico is getting uncomfortable ?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Im optimistic for podiums, not wins.

I'll be extremely surprised if the W03 beats either the RB8 or 27 on pure merit.
If it does, I'll enshrine my lounge to Bob Bell, Willis and Costa.

[xpensive]

Im optimistic for podiums, not wins.
...

I actually xpect AMG to be challenging for wins on the powertracks, China comes to mind.

[Mr.S]

Im optimistic for podiums, not wins.
...

I actually xpect AMG to be challenging for wins on the powertracks, China comes to mind.

Not gonna happen. Maybe Spa or Monza. Maybe an outside chance at Montreal.

But China has many chicanes & low speed turns. Brawn has openly said that traction is Mercedes' weakness. He said the the car is good in fast corners & MSC finds it very consistent in fast corners,it is known to be the quickest over a straight-line speed.

I dont think the Straight-line speed difference will be that big though to negate the Slow Speed Difference.

I am also expecting a pole or a P2,P3 from Nico in qualifying. He is as good a qualifier as there are. Also Mercedes have the best DRS & will probably gain 2-3 tenths more than RBR or Mclaren. No Big Compromises between low & high fuel runs like last year due to LWB.

IF Mercedes is 0.5s slower than RBR on race pace,then expect Nico along with Mercedes superior DRS to enable Mercedes to fight for pole at races like Spa or Montreal.

[Mr.S]

I'm interested to know what your comments would be if Merc went home with chassis issues?

It really amazes me how this team is able to attract the greatest of both extremes, blind hate or blind love/optimism. Personally the more teams up front the better but i'm not going to count any chickens until Melb q3...if not the first European races.

This "blind optimism" is something the naysayers keep putting in our mouths. You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger Merc fan, who posts regularly, than JET or myself and neither of us have once stated we expect Merc to take the championship in 2012. Nor even second. What JET and I want is for the W03 to close the gap with the top three. We want to see *progress*. If they break into the top three, all the better.

I bring up the "burnt paint" comment, because I think it's asinine, shows bias, and implies the poster hasn't been closely following this or the previous thread. As the engineers on this thread have repeated several times already, burnt paint does not equal or even necessarily imply overheating. Even the right brained posters like myself would be able to point out that it's not unusual to see burnt paint on various, even front-running, cars throughout the season. "Burnt paint" is just a silly thing to go on about.

...Just as its silly for a Lotus fan to throw rocks right after his team has tucked its tail between its legs and gone home for the week. I have nothing against Lotus, I just think it was foolish of Ringo to make such an incendiary comment in this thread, at this time.

To answer your question... if Merc had gone home with Lotus's problem, I'd be gutted. I'm not a fair-weather fan, so I'd hold out hope, but I'd be very, very concerned. And I confess... I may even grasp at straws, or go into another team's thread and claim their car isn't ready.

I am not a lotus fan. Foolish of me to disagree with you? Incendiary comment? what?

I wont even explain why this car wont be top 3. I see a silver car with nothing progressive on it or about it expect for the tight rear.

Lotus doesn't have a serious problem. The car is fast and it's of a better design from my point of view, a little hiccup wont change that fact. A week to fix a problem then they're back.

For mercedes it looks like they'll be figuring out things like their new front wing on the first race weekend, cooling flow etc. You see them reverting to the old wing already.

Anyway i'll sit back and enjoy the thread. It seems the delayed launch has given us reason to believe Brawn has some big guns hiding under that burnt silver skin. When In fact he may have used the extra time nervously gauging the other new cars against the W02 in testing then going back to HQ and resetting the goals for the new car.

Lotus is not fast. Its a slow & steady car. Very decent & very little degradation though. So definitely points worthy. But its race simulation was Ultra Slow but consistent. I think its fast runs came on empty tanks with DRS & KERS & soft tyres whereas Nico on hard tyres on a 14-15 lap sting with no DRS is coming within 0.5-0.7 of that time which is amazing.

Although Tyre Wear can give Lotus a huge edge over most teams so i expect decent race pace from them.

[Mr.S]

Yep - sounds a bit like what BMW's plan was for 2008

I dont know to disagree with this but I am willing to bet every penny of mine that Mercedes will stay beyond Red Bull in Formula1. I see Red Bull moving away in 4-5 years. If Newey goes away its game over for Red Bull,if RBR does not win the title in 2012,13 & 14,Seb will probably go away.

I see a Mercedes vs Ferarri vs Mclaren (although I believe Mclaren needs to look at a different engine partnership at some point) as the future of Formula One.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Im optimistic for podiums, not wins.
...

I actually xpect AMG to be challenging for wins on the powertracks, China comes to mind.

Who knows. Red Bulls high downforce philosophy has proven to be far more effective than the low downforce philosophy of Mercedes teams at these power tracks.
Monza 2011 stands out...

[raymondu999]

To be fair Nico has led laps in the last two Chinese GPs - both through good strategy. So it's not entirely out of the question that he could win China this year.

[dren]

Im optimistic for podiums, not wins.
...

I actually xpect AMG to be challenging for wins on the powertracks, China comes to mind.

Who knows. Red Bulls high downforce philosophy has proven to be far more effective than the low downforce philosophy of Mercedes teams at these power tracks.
Monza 2011 stands out...

Mercedes was far closer to the front runners in that race than in others though. It was of benefit to them last year. I am siding with X on this one. China could bode very well.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@dren

Lets look at Monza, compared to say China, as you want to compare.

Monza is a bigger engine track. Yet Mercedes werent even close. Not only that, they solved their cooling issues by that stage and had implemented EBD.

The reason Mercedes had done so well in China was 3 fold. Firstly, the car didnt require the additional cooling vents that hampered them in terms of speed.
Secondly, Mercedes did not have to make sacrifices for race/quali set ups that we so often heard last season.
Finally, their tyre degradation was masked in this race. Why?


Lower ambient temperatures.

China had nothing to do with the lump in the back of the merc and everything to do with a perfect set of circumstances that allowed the team to run at optimum.
My opinion of course.

[Ferraripilot]

Im optimistic for podiums, not wins.

I'll be extremely surprised if the W03 beats either the RB8 or 27 on pure merit.
If it does, I'll enshrine my lounge to Bob Bell, Willis and Costa.

You might have to JET, better get the wife's permission. Technically, I believe Red Bull have shot themselves in the foot what that exhaust system they are running. They completely compromised their flow around the sidepods so they could gain maybe a few percent more flow around the side of the diffuser. Mclaren did not compromise their flow as much, but both teams are trying to make their diffuser larger rather than simply make it work better, which are what Mercedes are doing. RB and Mcl have a *wall* of exhaust gases blocking any laminar flow around their sidepods in that area. Huge mistake IMO.

Merc designed the sidepods very tightly and simply supercharged already existing airflow with the idea of making the diffuser more efficient. I believe this is indeed the way to go. Minimal sidepod flow sacrifices and it's going to make for a faster car in the quick turns such as those at Silverstone.

[Gridlock]

A) That's disgusting. It's the worst Merc, for start.
B) Mods'll be along in a minute...

[The_Truth]

Gazzetta dello Sport is reporting Mercedes is the main force just behind Red Bull
http://i43.tinypic.com/1zdm0qx.png

[aduka11]

Found this Video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rGQTE2VlCQ[/youtube]

Whats Michael compared to Massa and Vettel here doing wrong(except the part where he made a mistake)?

From what i see he's doing a lot more corrections before and after the corner...

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@Aduka


Thanks for the comparisons. I don't think the parameters for comparison are equal. Conditions, fuel loads and tyres are all different.