Mercedes GP MGP W01

[marcush.]

I´d think if they had this constantly they would not have been able to finish 6/7.. and of course the overtaking was towards the end ... so less fuel..I think its just to do with traffic or messing up the exit of eau rouge and thats giving the car behind the run on you as he has not to lift ...will explain the massive speed difference when both cars have nearly equal terminal speeds .

[747heavy]

Sure, if one car lifts in E.R. it will explain everything.

[marcush.]

according to schumacher at least the rosberg overtake was caused by him having to lift in eau rouge to avoid making contact with a backmarker ..

[toshinden]

Guys, i've never heard the Merc having a straight line test. Do they ever have it?

[NewtonMeter]

Guys, i've never heard the Merc having a straight line test. Do they ever have it?

I was thinking the same thing upon hearing of the Ferrari straight line test. Personally I don't recall any.

I'd like to know as well.

[747heavy]

sorry it´s in German
Rosberg explains the steering wheel of the W01 in detail.

http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/forme ... trale.html

[Morteza]

sorry it´s in German
Rosberg explains the steering wheel of the W01 in detail.

http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/forme ... trale.html

I'd seen that on Mercedes GP official youtube channel, but it was in German. GPupdate website had it dubbed in English. Here's the link :

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/videos/398/s ... o-rosberg/

[mach11]

Hey all, I know the messages above are related to what happened in the belgium grand prix....

I would like to know why W01 is not performing upto the levels of the Redbull or the Mclarens.....

I know ross could not afford to start development of the cars last year due to financial issues.... but once the merc deal came through... they could have started.... is it that... or anyother major issue with the car that is really slowing us down....

[NewtonMeter]

Hey all, I know the messages above are related to what happened in the belgium grand prix....

I would like to know why W01 is not performing upto the levels of the Redbull or the Mclarens.....

I know ross could not afford to start development of the cars last year due to financial issues.... but once the merc deal came through... they could have started.... is it that... or anyother major issue with the car that is really slowing us down....

This is purely just my opinion and I'll be happy to revise it if someone comes up with a better theory.

But the little development that they did manage to do last year (once the merc deal was struck) was in completely the wrong direction as they misculated certain tyre performance characteristics. So the car was relatively underdeveloped and the little development that was done, was done based on false data. Double whammy for you right there.

[raymondu999]

I don't think the car is too much of a handful to be honest. But it completely mismanages the tyres in terms of weight distribution. That was also key in making the MP4-24 competitive

[mach11]

it is really a shame that this time mercedes have got it wrong this time...

also it was reported that Michael schumacher wanted to start the development of the next year's car but Ross Brawn would like to continue with this car and see what they can salvage this year.....

It is really interesting to see how this will turn out....

Usually ferrari start their development on the next year's car mid season... mostly because they would have secured both the titles by this time in the season....

Who is right then.... Michael or Ross????

[marcush.]

you learn as you go along ...i do´t see any development as wasted effort even if the car is not making progress ..at least the team will not be under the illusion to have solved their problems..

I almost feel that Mercedes made a fundamental error in pursuing their originally decided development programme + development programme to rectify car layout issues + intense development programme to copy the must haves F-duct and EBD.

These three programmes all did not reap the benefits in fact a lot of things were tried but it seems performance gains were always less than anticipated.

The whole new parts story went as far as compromising their preparation in midseason ,so Merc not even maximised on what they had in hand ...double whammy.

My view on this is ,they failed to come up with a solution to rectify the root cause for their lack of qualy speed in not realising their car design did not match the tyre needs at all .
Just why it was not possible to rectify this problem we don´t know ,but apparently some of their ballast could be integral with the tub and cannot be moved and so they are stuck more or less with a front heavy car that is killing the front tyres .In the air of this it is logical that front wing development will not help at all ,as the front tyres are overworked already.With nothing to gain in front end grip there is not much use of adding rear downforce...and we see why they do not progress .without the ability to unload the front ballast ...nothing is possible and the cardevelopment is stuck ..you could only try and shed some drag ...but that was also not one of their strengths in development ...as seen with their trapspeeds.
I almost think they should have called it a day earlier and concentrate to maximise their work on the weekends forging relationships of engineer and driver....this seems to be an area where they suffered as progress was not made really.

[wesley123]

why should they mind developing an flawed cr wich have proven to be not worth for any podium or even an race win, if brawn wants that then he can develop a long time and it still wont help. Thy better bet on 2011, with the new tires this extra development time could come out handy

[marcush.]

oh you should ask this Ross brawn.. as they still fiddle around with EBDs and upgrades..when nothing seems to really bring them forward.

It took them the whole season to realise this thing is flawed and uncurable,OR they still dig for that dog buried somewhere!

obviously others have improved cars that where way slower than the merc at the start of the season.so maybe them Merc have had the wrong shovel or hark ?

If as it looks currently no help is in sight to make this a winner why throw money (time) at it you could easily use this for advanced concepts for the 2011 contender..you might not have enough time due to the recouces and time avaialble later.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

why should they mind developing an flawed cr wich have proven to be not worth for any podium or even an race win, if brawn wants that then he can develop a long time and it still wont help. Thy better bet on 2011, with the new tires this extra development time could come out handy

Wesley development is well under way. Since the end of the summer break so its 3 weeks in at present.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85836
There are a few questions I have regards aspects of the aero and technical team, because there are 2 glaring issues dogging Mercedes GP with the W01.

The first being the cars pathetic straight line speed. The Merc V8 is the best for top end grunt(Not a massive difference, but discernable) And yet the W01 is consistently slower than Saubers, Red bull and even Torro Rosso's.
So either the Wind tunnel is out, or Loic Bigois and his aero team is rubbish at penning aero effiecient designs.

Haug and Brawn need to decide where the problem lies herein.

I can see the reason for it, homologation etc, but this is where Brawn will be earning his pennies because it will be his decision to either keep Bigois and his merry men or go for the paradigm shift and go for total change(expensive).

Then we get to the technical aspects of the W01 like the inability for Mercedes to produce a working EBD. They were one of the first to copy Red Bull, but have 3 different versions of it.
The tyre guys also misjudged some fundamentals for this year. Hampering the cars grip in slower corners. Witness Schumacher and Rosberg both see-sawing at the wheel at the final corner of Spa, compared to every top 10 car. 2 perhaps 3 corrections required on entry and exit of this corner....whereas all the rest was a right left flick during Qualy.

These are visible indicators of the problems plaguing Mercedes.

So in the fast straights they have an aero brick, and in the slow corners the car wont go where its told to. I would like to commend Rosberg on his podiums thus far and Schumacher for keeping his chin up!

The crux of the matter for me is the decisions that Brawn and perhaps Haug will take in the next 3 months, because its in this time where trophies are won and lost for next year IMO.