JohnsonsEvilTwin wrote:What makes you think Mercedes are incapable of innovation Marcush?
If anything I reckon they are capable of it. They MAY have an idea they want to keep for as long as possible. It is a possibility, you cannot discount any team for innovation in F1.
Im of the opinion that Mercedes just want as long a lead time in developing the car as possible. If the car isnt a winning car, and they tested it in the first test, it will remain a non winning car come the first race.
So Mercedes have hedged their bets and have given the W03 an extra weeks gestation period. If you are trailing your competitiors I would say that this is the default action of choice, if you are serious about winning.
I would even go further and delay the car until the very last test, and use the first GP as a simulation model then go from there. If what was said was true, that 0.050 seconds is found in aero every week, then your car will have 4 weeks bonus time, with a test to verify.
Its a gamble of course, but Mercedes need to gamble to cut the deficit. The W02 was in fact a brave gamble that failed to pay off. The W03 will have more resources but still needs some brave ideas to push them forward.
jet ,that was NOT what I have claimed.Indeed Mercedes has build the different car a few years in a row now and they have come up with new ideas in several areas.My claim is they have not really found WHERE the f...g second is they lag behind since end of 2009...Fact is they had reduced in size from a BIG team to something considerably smaller and in retrospective they juist had not the competence inhouse to value and channel new ideas and necessary developments.They still acted as a big team but that is just not efficient for a smaller outfit and so they developped into dead alleys methinks or took bold decisions not based on all the facts -development shortcuts or whatever...
Now back to a comparable headcount I think more will get done and even if their hit rate is not improving they will close the gap considerably.
But maybe they have learned even more than we can imagine in these two years and can implement all lesson learned + their added workforce to something really good.
I just have the opinion that launching your car has no advantage to them ,it´s born out of some findings that led to a major redesign and that could be worrying or a sign of something REALLY special that will make such a big impact it is worth being late ...if it´s something like the BGP001 advantage i´m ok with it.
