Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[elf341]

Don't the computers have a set amount of performance which they are allowed to use under the RRA? Measured in FLOPS I believe.

It's a balance between 60(possibly reduced to 40) hrs of windtunnel time vs 60 teraflops of cfd per week. I'm not sure if 1 hr WT time is directly exchangeable for 1 teraflop of cfd, but it is a weekly balance of the two.

Presume you mean 60 teraflops on average over a week, since 'flops' is a rate (floating-point operations per second) - and 60 tera-operations over a week is actually a very small number of calculations (consider that your typical desktop PC can do about 50mflops, which itself is 30 tera-operations per week).

Either way, 60 teraflops is an extremely stingy allocation to a formula one team.

[Tyler]

2nd season in a row that Mercedes have got off to a slow start - after the 2nd race in 2011 Mercedes had only 4 points, this year only 1.
Let's hope they manage to get themselves sorted quickly.

[ArchAngel]

Fact is, a car that can challenge for top 3 spots in qualifying can't be a complete dog.

Does the same logic apply to a car that wins a race?

Alonso has certainly proven in the last race that with his dogged determination, persuasive driving and a bit of luck, he can force the F2012 to overachieve and drag it up the podium. Massa, on the other hand, can only take it out for a stroll and back to the kennel. Arf!

Right now, only a solitary point separates the team from the backmarkers. Merc needs a solid points finish from both drivers in China to at least pull them abreast of the midfielders. Here's hoping the team has already unloaded most of their season quota of misfortunes and the fates finally start smiling on them (instead of pointing & laughing at them).

[Maelstrom]

Fact is, a car that can challenge for top 3 spots in qualifying can't be a complete dog.

Does the same logic apply to a car that wins a race?

Alonso has certainly proven in the last race that with his dogged determination, persuasive driving and a bit of luck, he can force the F2012 to overachieve and drag it up the podium. Massa, on the other hand, can only take it out for a stroll and back to the kennel. Arf!

Right now, only a solitary point separates the team from the backmarkers. Merc needs a solid points finish from both drivers in China to at least pull them abreast of the midfielders. Here's hoping the team has already unloaded most of their season quota of misfortunes and the fates finally start smiling on them (instead of pointing & laughing at them).

Hmm... so would a Merc 1-2 in China do?

[Ferraripilot]

I cannot give much weight to things such as points right now considering MB have essentially been dealing with a car which we know has not yielded maximum race pace due to tire issues. Once the car gives us a 100% operational race then I will offer some judgment on the car, but for now the only judgment I have is for the team for not marrying a great car like W03 to the tires correctly, especially considering how well they worked during testing. Really odd issue they could all of the sudden fall apart on race day after performing very well in qualifying the previous day.

China is going to be very interesting as it is definitely a track where we will see a little of their mechanical prowess combined with their super-DRS. If the tire issue is fixed, I would definitely predict a win as being possible. Last year Mclaren were just nudging 312kph on the straights in China while Michael was hitting 312kph this previous weekend in Malaysia! I fully expect W03 to be pushing a few kph over any of the other top teams on those straights. Sector 2 in China is Mclaren country but other than that I don't see anyone being near W03 there.

[marcush.]

can we conclude :having the car late is no advantage after all.They understand parts of it but have missed the boat in the tyre department which is the tricky bit ...

[Maelstrom]

I cannot give much weight to things such as points right now considering MB have essentially been dealing with a car which we know has not yielded maximum race pace due to tire issues. Once the car gives us a 100% operational race then I will offer some judgment on the car, but for now the only judgment I have is for the team for not marrying a great car like W03 to the tires correctly, especially considering how well they worked during testing. Really odd issue they could all of the sudden fall apart on race day after performing very well in qualifying the previous day.

China is going to be very interesting as it is definitely a track where we will see a little of their mechanical prowess combined with their super-DRS. If the tire issue is fixed, I would definitely predict a win as being possible. Last year Mclaren were just nudging 312kph on the straights in China while Michael was hitting 312kph this previous weekend in Malaysia! I fully expect W03 to be pushing a few kph over any of the other top teams on those straights. Sector 2 in China is Mclaren country but other than that I don't see anyone being near W03 there.

I'm just wondering that since the car was not having tyre issues in Barcelona does that mean that similar tracks and similar temps would mean the car will do okay?

[raymondu999]

It was very cold in Barcelona IIRC. But Barcelona heats the tyres a lot too

[Maelstrom]

It was very cold in Barcelona IIRC. But Barcelona heats the tyres a lot too

So European races might suit them more?

[raymondu999]

Eh? Why do you say that? If you're saying about the cold that was in Barcelona (I remember that the ambient temps were up to 3 degrees and something like 12 at their hottest). But that was winter - the European season will be in the summer

[Ferraripilot]

can we conclude :having the car late is no advantage after all.They understand parts of it but have missed the boat in the tyre department which is the tricky bit ...

Not necessarily. Merc seemed to get the tires working just fine during testing. All teams had to operate on a setup assumption going into the first two races as all the teams had to go on was a small slice of data obtained during very different weather and track conditions. So in a way, it means W03 may have a small setup window for tires at the moment while other teams have a more broad margin of optimization, or error if you like.

[xpensive]

...
Last year Mclaren were just nudging 312kph on the straights in China while Michael was hitting 312kph this previous weekend in Malaysia! I fully expect W03 to be pushing a few kph over any of the other top teams on those straights.
...

They should, when they have at least 30 Hp more than McLaren as the can cherry-pick their engines from the MHPE-dyno?

[Ferraripilot]

...
Last year Mclaren were just nudging 312kph on the straights in China while Michael was hitting 312kph this previous weekend in Malaysia! I fully expect W03 to be pushing a few kph over any of the other top teams on those straights.
...

They should, when they have at least 30 Hp more than McLaren as the can cherry-pick their engines from the MHPE-dyno?

hahaha. probably not true but fun anyway.

[MercAMGF1Fans]

I had the privilege of being invited into the Merc Pits at Sepang..

[Pierce89]

Don't the computers have a set amount of performance which they are allowed to use under the RRA? Measured in FLOPS I believe.

It's a balance between 60(possibly reduced to 40) hrs of windtunnel time vs 60 teraflops of cfd per week. I'm not sure if 1 hr WT time is directly exchangeable for 1 teraflop of cfd, but it is a weekly balance of the two.

Presume you mean 60 teraflops on average over a week, since 'flops' is a rate (floating-point operations per second) - and 60 tera-operations over a week is actually a very small number of calculations (consider that your typical desktop PC can do about 50mflops, which itself is 30 tera-operations per week).

Either way, 60 teraflops is an extremely stingy allocation to a formula one team.

maybe stingy stingy. but it's been widely published.