richard_leeds wrote:
Lets get this right - Are you saying the team with highest total mileage and also the most completed race simulations has problems with reliability?
Also, Merc's problems seem to be manageable because they are able to get back on track to build up the mileage. How is that worse than a team that sits in the garage all day with only one problem?
I would say it's fishy for me too, I don't say they are in big troubles, but they have quite a lot of small problems. They can fix them easy and fast, but if this happens during race they wont finish...
richard_leeds wrote:
Remember this is testing not racing. So if something is creating odd telemetry they can call the car in to adjust it, then send it out again to see if the problem reoccurs (empirical learning relies on repeatability). However in a race situation Merc could stay on track but tell the driver to change a setting, or go easy on the brakes, or perhaps short shift to help the engine or gearbox. The reason they able to tell the driver what to do in the race is because they've seen it before in testing.
Thay can do that, but still is reliability problem, not major but it is and it would cost them performance.
richard_leeds wrote:
Meanwhile another team with few testing laps will be going into the unknown when they see a new problem during a race or qualification. At least in a race there's not much that can be done because their only choice is to stay on track until the engine data becomes critical. The nightmare would be a problem popping up in Q2 - they won't know if they should recall the car to try to work out how to implement a fix, or if they'd be better to live with the problem with slower lap times (and risk blowing the engine). Meanwhile Merc will already know what the problem means and they'd know how to fix it in time for Q3.
Again they will know, but it still reliability problem.