Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team 2015

[iotar__]

a minute's silence in the memory of pit boards.his bloody steering wheel alone is smarter than the apollo lunar modules, why is coaching from the wall even a thing?

English please.
Head to head for pace comparison and why hards were the right choice questioned by a driver that doesn't need coaching : http://macofan.com/en/index.php?page=ch ... %20Rosberg
Sebastian Vettel Medium (17) Medium (20) Hard (19)
Lewis Hamilton Medium (4) Hard (20) Medium (14) Hard (18)
Nico Rosberg Medium (4) Hard (22) Hard (15) Medium (15)
Kimi Raikkonen Medium (2) Medium (12) Medium (20) Hard (22)
Valtteri Bottas Medium (4) Medium (21) Medium (15) Hard (16)

Spot the odd one. I find it more interesting than dissecting lap that didn't matter anyway. Driver closing, pitstop two laps later and different tyres, I saw that before.

[SectorOne]

(In response to Phil)

Quali on my f1 app is messed up so this could be way wrong because nasr has replaced hamilton and rosberg seems to have vettels times.
Its very confusing

Last run sector 3

Ham - 44,8
Vet - 44,3

Hamilton did a 44,6 on his first lap in Q3 (pole lap)
On his two runs after he marginally improved sector 1 with each run.

First run Sector 2 - 37,8
Second run Sector 2 - aborted
Third run Sector 2 - 38,1

So he lost about three tenths in sector 2 and 2 tenths in Sector 3 compared with his pole lap.
So half a second lost in S2/3 compared to his pole position lap.

[mclaren_mircea]

How is possible that Mercedes spendt more tokens than Ferrari on the engine, and Ferrari made such a big step againts Mercedes. I know that Ferrari had huge problems with the engine last year, but they would have had to spend tokens to rectify that problems and to close the gap to the Mercedes engine (and that's in a situation that they spent the same amount of tokens with Mercedes). But Mercedes spent more tokens, and not that they didn't increase the performance, but they lost performance towards Ferrari. How is that posible to lose ground using more tokens? They went for reliability witht he tokens?

[Steven]

How is possible that Mercedes spendt more tokens than Ferrari on the engine, and Ferrari made such a big step againts Mercedes. I know that Ferrari had huge problems with the engine last year, but they would have had to spend tokens to rectify that problems and to close the gap to the Mercedes engine (and that's in a situation that they spent the same amount of tokens with Mercedes). But Mercedes spent more tokens, and not that they didn't increase the performance, but they lost performance towards Ferrari. How is that posible to lose ground using more tokens? They went for reliability witht he tokens?

Tokens are a means to limit parts that can be changed. It's been widely known / thought that Ferrari did have a well designed ICE baseline and ran a 200bar injection system in 2014. At the same time, one of the weaker points for Ferrari has been the turbo, and the packaging of the exhaust pipes which was much bulkier than on any competing power unit.
Suppose that Ferrari has the ideal engine, only a bad turbo, 3 tokens would close the gap. Of course that's not the case, but it shows how tokens do not relate immediately to HP, but rather to what a manufacturer can change.

[noel]

English please.

which part of my comment wasn't clear?

[simieski]

How is possible that Mercedes spendt more tokens than Ferrari on the engine, and Ferrari made such a big step againts Mercedes. I know that Ferrari had huge problems with the engine last year, but they would have had to spend tokens to rectify that problems and to close the gap to the Mercedes engine (and that's in a situation that they spent the same amount of tokens with Mercedes). But Mercedes spent more tokens, and not that they didn't increase the performance, but they lost performance towards Ferrari. How is that posible to lose ground using more tokens? They went for reliability witht he tokens?

Reliability modifications can be made without using tokens, as can cost saving mod's.
Remember mercs pace was tyre limited, so it's not like you saw Ferrari and merc flat out against each other. Few more races yet before the true pecking order emerges.

[Kiril Varbanov]

Lauda trolling like a boss - http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/126 ... c-bastards

Two days ago he said Alonso's egocentric behavior was bad for Ferrari.

[Phil]

I wouldn't call it trolling. Lauda is very outspoken and sais what he sees and what he thinks. Nothing wrong with that. He's not going to be always right in what he sais, but over the years of listening to him on RTL, the one common point is that he always sais what he thinks and that in a direct manner. For good and for worse.

PS: His comments about Alonso's egocentric behavior was ment in an entirely different way and more of an analysis in how perhaps the Alonso/Ferrari relationship didn't work out. I'm not sure what that comment has to do with another one in a completely different context?

[Kiril Varbanov]

...

Reading more what Lauda said from official sources, you are probably right - different context. I take my words back, I stand corrected. On a related matter, it will be very interesting to see how Rosberg is going to react to this situation - more cracks, dirty numbers or pure pace / driving.

[PlatinumZealot]

Too bad he has already cracked off the track. Now we are waiting to see if he will crack on the track.

So far he is doing a good job when it comes to raw pace. His race pace has improved compared to the same tracks last year, but contrary to popular belief he is lacking when it comes to race smarts and tactics. He just needs to apply his self with the right tactics and his tyres will last long enough for him to use his pace.

"Rosbo" has a good reputation at Bahrain so this his last chance to turn it around before Lewis goes over the 25 point gap. It would be very bad for his psychology to go into the 3 week break on such a lashing.

In terms of becoming the de-factor nubmer 2 driver, I would guess he has up to Monza to be within 40 points, under the condition that Vettel is less than 50 points behind. So he has a lot of time to get his self together.

[giantfan10]

How is possible that Mercedes spendt more tokens than Ferrari on the engine, and Ferrari made such a big step againts Mercedes. I know that Ferrari had huge problems with the engine last year, but they would have had to spend tokens to rectify that problems and to close the gap to the Mercedes engine (and that's in a situation that they spent the same amount of tokens with Mercedes). But Mercedes spent more tokens, and not that they didn't increase the performance, but they lost performance towards Ferrari. How is that posible to lose ground using more tokens? They went for reliability witht he tokens?

its possible for a few reasons....
mercedes got their engine ,software and recovery system right in year one of this formula... Ferrari did not...
in 2014 i suspect ferrari was in overdrive sorting out their issues even though they couldnt implement changes to their engine.
in year 2 ferrari implements all the fixes they sorted out in 2014 and did a good job of it ... like a previous poster said if you know exactly what is wrong with your engine and youre lucky enough then its posible to have a huge engine output upgrade without spending a lot of tokens.
on the flip side the current engine does NOT have an infinite power output so mercedes can only do so much no matter the amount of tokens they have... the law of diminishing returns....
ferrari have made a larger step but i dont think their engine is on par with the mercedes engine in the back of the mercedes factory cars

[evered7]

All it takes is one DNF for anyone of the top4 to close on others at this early stage. We saw Rosberg having an issue at the final race of the year last season. No reason why it shouldn't happen again for any of the two Mercedes drivers.

Rosberg needs to make sure he is there when and if Hamilton suffers a problem. Those wins from Ricciardo last year should not be repeated this season by Ferrari (Vettel/Kimi) for him to not become a 2nd driver. Malaysia was a peek into that scenario and it will only get worse as the season progress when Ferrari make further improvements to the PU. Unlike Williams, they generally don't screw with their strategy or play it safe. Hence it is absolutely required that he doesn't get beaten by any of the Ferraris in the upcoming races.

Spain will be interesting with the next set of upgrades introduced by the teams. For a change I am hoping Ferrari's work.

[Cold Fussion]

I would say a more accurate assessment is that Ferrari and Red Bull play to win if there is some chance, where as Williams are more interested in consolidating a big points total.

[Richard]

Woah... I'm not sure the #askNico was such a great idea. Rosberg seems to be rather worked up in these clips. You don't need to speak German to understand his message in the final clip.

The think I don't get is why he answered the negative questions and got himself worked up? He should have answered questions that would have led to positive answers.
https://twitter.com/nico_rosberg/status ... 2625491969 https://twitter.com/nico_rosberg/status ... 9787343874 https://twitter.com/nico_rosberg/status ... 0235899905

[evered7]

How many years of the new contract he signed at Mercedes pending? Frankly I can see him replacing Kimi after 2016 (maybe 2015 if Kimi decides its enough) if things continue in the same vein.