Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2015

[De Jokke]

I agree but I also think that the W06 is harder to set-up (getting the sweetspot), and Lewis knows how to sweetspot a car that doesn't give it secrets so fast to its drivers

[PlatinumZealot]

The W04 was a bitch... The W05 not so bad.. but the W06 seems to be sweetheart compared to those two.

[Samraj_official]

So 16 racewins of W05 was "not so bad"?

[NewtonMeter]

The W04 was a bitch... The W05 not so bad.. but the W06 seems to be sweetheart compared to those two.

I hardly think the W04 was a bitch. It was easily the second fastest car and for a while, the fastest in qualifying.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

The W04 was a bitch... The W05 not so bad.. but the W06 seems to be sweetheart compared to those two.

The achilles heel of W04 was the tyre eating, which was an inherent issue in the DNA of the Merc cars, until W05 arrived. If they could have built a solution, their first championship would have come with W04 itself. It was a car with great deal of downforce. With superior craftsmen and loads of learning from their previous cars, they managed to put together one of the all time best (compared to competition) cars of F1, along with a class leading PU. W05 was definitely seemed to be a far more easier car to setup, compared to W06. Lewis is more comfortable with W06 as it seems that there are some sensitive points in W06 related to setup, which is slightly more bothering Nico. But, W06 doesn't seem to be a big departure from W05 in terms of pure performance OR it may seem so.

[Spoutnik]

Paddy said the W06 is more an evolution than a revolution from the W05.
Aldo Costa confessed, this winter they worked principally on the reliability. And it's highly visible, the Merc had less reliability issues than last year, appart for the brake who are highly just in term of temperature.

[PlatinumZealot]

The W04 was a bitch... The W05 not so bad.. but the W06 seems to be sweetheart compared to those two.

The achilles heel of W04 was the tyre eating, which was an inherent issue in the DNA of the Merc cars, until W05 arrived. If they could have built a solution, their first championship would have come with W04 itself. It was a car with great deal of downforce. With superior craftsmen and loads of learning from their previous cars, they managed to put together one of the all time best (compared to competition) cars of F1, along with a class leading PU. W05 was definitely seemed to be a far more easier car to setup, compared to W06. Lewis is more comfortable with W06 as it seems that there are some sensitive points in W06 related to setup, which is slightly more bothering Nico. But, W06 doesn't seem to be a big departure from W05 in terms of pure performance OR it may seem so.

I haven't heard the driver's complain about setting up the W06 so far... Nico has praised his amazing car a few times in the conferences. W05 on the other hand had a few off-races for each driver.

[Edax]

The W04 was a bitch... The W05 not so bad.. but the W06 seems to be sweetheart compared to those two.

The achilles heel of W04 was the tyre eating, which was an inherent issue in the DNA of the Merc cars, until W05 arrived. If they could have built a solution, their first championship would have come with W04 itself. It was a car with great deal of downforce. With superior craftsmen and loads of learning from their previous cars, they managed to put together one of the all time best (compared to competition) cars of F1, along with a class leading PU. W05 was definitely seemed to be a far more easier car to setup, compared to W06. Lewis is more comfortable with W06 as it seems that there are some sensitive points in W06 related to setup, which is slightly more bothering Nico. But, W06 doesn't seem to be a big departure from W05 in terms of pure performance OR it may seem so.

I think the W04 was a very good car. Only a lot of time was spent getting the FRIC system tuned in. I still view FRIC as something which has a very narrow application band. It gives a small benefit when setup right, but can cause a lot of problems when you're not in the sweet spot. It explains a lot of the inconsistencies in the 2013 campaign and also why Mercedes was not unhappy to let it go.

The W05 and W06 I see as evolutions from the W04, whereby the transition to the w05 was a bigger step forwards than to the w06.

The W05 also had the "handicap" that the other teams hadn't done their homework on the powerplant. That and the stories that the customer teams were not getting the same spec engines, kept the idea alive that their advantage was purely down to horsepower. Now Ferrari has a competing engine there is IMHO no way around the fact that Mercedes has built an awesome platform with the W04/ 05/ 06 on all aspects.

For me one benchmark is the way the cars behave when cresting Eau Rouge (how fast and how much sidestep). That's where horsepower, downforce, balance and grip come together. Last year the W05 absolutely nailed that bit. It would be interesting to see how the w06 will do there.

[ChrisF1]

The achilles heel of W04 was the tyre eating, which was an inherent issue in the DNA of the Merc cars, until W05 arrived. If they could have built a solution, their first championship would have come with W04 itself. It was a car with great deal of downforce. With superior craftsmen and loads of learning from their previous cars, they managed to put together one of the all time best (compared to competition) cars of F1, along with a class leading PU. W05 was definitely seemed to be a far more easier car to setup, compared to W06. Lewis is more comfortable with W06 as it seems that there are some sensitive points in W06 related to setup, which is slightly more bothering Nico. But, W06 doesn't seem to be a big departure from W05 in terms of pure performance OR it may seem so.

I haven't heard the driver's complain about setting up the W06 so far... Nico has praised his amazing car a few times in the conferences. W05 on the other hand had a few off-races for each driver.

Pretty confident Nico or Lewis said that the W05 would have been quicker than the W06 was after more than one race. (I'm sure that somebody can dig out the quote)

[mclaren_mircea]

Great article with Forbes for Toto Wolff in which you can find interesting things about the relevance of the F1 programme for Daimler, the technology transfer on both ways, money, marketing, and more other aspects. Enjoy it.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2015/ ... road-cars/

[mclaren_mircea]

Does the engien rules allows Mercedes to not spend the 7 tokens this season, and to use them for the next year engine, or they lose the tokens if they don't spend them? Thanks.

[PlatinumZealot]

Good Question. In my view they would have to be spent before the last race or else they won't be in the 2015 season anymore and hence those rules would be voided?

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Good Question. In my view they would have to be spent before the last race or else they won't be in the 2015 season anymore and hence those rules would be voided?

Yeah. But rules are meant to be broken. Just like how the in season PU development kicked in, although there was supposed to be NO in season development. Despite Mercedes budging to other manufactuers' demands for in season development, which resulted in token based allowance, nothing has really changed in terms of challenge to Mercedes, it's still not there. The cries continue from other manufactuers, this time for UNABATED development. IN THE INTEREST OF SPORTS (Read: Inefficiency of other manufacturers) they want Mercedes to agree with them.

But may be there is something wrong with the formula, this whole hybrid thing. Why is it that 3 manufacturers struggled to get it right first time? Why is 2 of them are still struggling to get it right? Millions and Millions are going down the drain, without the hope of light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking at the pathetic nature of current F1, it should be allowed for other manufacturers to properly develop the PU for another full season, without any restrictions along with some relief on aerodynamics. Otherwise, the already bore fest show is only going to compound. Yesterday on Sky, Damon Hill made a comment, which is really so true. Imagine the situation of a driver/team walking in "day in/day out", "week in/week out", "YEAR IN/YEAR OUT" knowing there is ABSOLUTELY no chance of winning. There has to be a way that everyone should have a chance, however remote it would be. That would atleast keep them motivated to perform better. In 90s, a lot of teams had the opportunity to win at least one grand prix and it was possible for someone like Benetton/Renault to win championships, despite not being the HIGHLY BUDGETED teams. Today the chances are ABSOLUTE ZERO.

[drunkf1fan]

Good Question. In my view they would have to be spent before the last race or else they won't be in the 2015 season anymore and hence those rules would be voided?

I can see a situation in which the 7 tokens could be used to provide updates that need updates from next years engines to work. IE Use 7 tokens to make huge changes for the final race of the season(before which constructors and drivers titles will likely be wrapped up and most positions finalised as well). Where the upgrade might lead to a significantly worse engine for the last race as the tokens are effectively designed to be part of the upgrade package for the start of the 2016 season. Most likely the tokens will go towards anything that is being frozen before 2016 which they see worth changing this year.

Tactically speaking would all 4 Merc teams agree to take a engine penalty in the penultimate race tactically to have a spare engine for the last race. Then finalise a new engine that effectively sucks without all the 2016 updates included in it. If they can say they'll have a stronger engine for 2016 in doing that would any merc teams be opposed to such a plan, who knows.

All season long I've been wondering if we might see some tokens used near the very end of the season pretty much entirely intended for the 2016 engine. It would also depend based on what happens this year. If Ferrari were closer than they have been then both Merc may have seen a reason to upgrade earlier to get an advantage or Ferrari may have spent more points to close a small gap. As it stands I think the gap is big enough that Merc will feel Ferrari can't catch them and Ferrari will feel the gap is too big so both will be looking towards optimising for 2016 than attempting to change the order of this year.

Renault/Honda on the other hand look like they need to spend tokens, they should find/build a reliable base this year for which to then develop further next year.

[drunkf1fan]

But may be there is something wrong with the formula, this whole hybrid thing. Why is it that 3 manufacturers struggled to get it right first time? Why is 2 of them are still struggling to get it right? Millions and Millions are going down the drain, without the hope of light at the end of the tunnel.

Looking at the pathetic nature of current F1, it should be allowed for other manufacturers to properly develop the PU for another full season, without any restrictions along with some relief on aerodynamics. Otherwise, the already bore fest show is only going to compound. Yesterday on Sky, Damon Hill made a comment, which is really so true. Imagine the situation of a driver/team walking in "day in/day out", "week in/week out", "YEAR IN/YEAR OUT" knowing there is ABSOLUTELY no chance of winning.

I don't think Ferrari got the hybrid thing wrong, I don't think they tried to make a great ERS system and failed, I think their design was intended to be aero not engine based and they decided(incorrectly) not to focus on a powerful ers system. In a single year they turned this around, both years the ERS was reliable, just one year it wasn't intended to be powerful and this year it was and they did that fine.

Renault last year made an engine that only really had reliability problems within a over tight RBR packaging, they fixed a huge portion of those problems(RBR side, not Renault) before Australia. The ERS worked pretty well, mostly Lotus made a crap car that had loads of problems which really exaggerated the engine problems. It wasn't a great engine but wasn't particularly bad. This year they've made it so much worse and it seems one of if not the main cause is pistons in the ICE, not the hybrid systems. Honda are the only team that completely screwed it up IMHO.

AS for the latter part, honestly for 15 years 6-8 out of 10-12 teams have turned up year in year out with absolutely no chance of winning. Mclaren are only today in a situation Manor, Caterham, Sauber, FI and others generally have been in throughout their existence. Every year after the first race all but 2-3 teams don't expect to compete for wins unless a bunch of front runners take each other out, even then it's only realistically 1 or 2 more teams that have any chance.

In most sport the majority of participants spend their careers knowing they have no chance to win.