Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[Timstr]

OK, I'll rephrase. The rumored rebranding would see the name "Mercedes" dropped completely from the team's title. "Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team," as the team is currently known, would then be known as "AMG Petronas Formula One Team." Such a move would realign the involvement of "Mercedes" to that of an engine supplier, because the team would have the informal moniker AMG-Mercedes, rather like McLaren-Mercedes.

A pointless excercise because AMG should not and cannot be seen as separate from Mercedes.

[bhall]

Many would argue that Mercedes AMG Petronas itself has been a pointless exercise. What better way to cap off a pointless exercise than with another pointless exercise. Maybe they'll somehow cancel each other out.

[Ferraripilot]

A pointless excercise because AMG should not and cannot be seen as separate from Mercedes.

+1 precisely. All the money comes from Daimler either way. Who cares what it's called, it's still going to be known as the Mercedes werks team, and what one is known as is far more important than their title.

[xpensive]

When all is said and done, Daimler will withdraw from it all quoting their irreconcieable diferencies with MrE.

[Ferraripilot]

When all is said and done, Daimler will withdraw from it all quoting their irreconcieable diferencies with MrE.

You could be right, but I personally doubt it. They are in the first year of finally having a fully 'built' and staffed team. It makes little sense to assume they could pull off so much in so little time yet decide to pull the plug on the project without really seeing if it can fly.

[marcush.]

it´s a myth that people need time to make an impact.if you have to bring something to the table it will be obvious the instant you are arriving -given the outfit is missing something -
If the team -read companny -does show the same weakness a year or two later still -you can bet the missing link is still missing.

[madly]

They are in the first year of finally having a fully 'built' and staffed team. It makes little sense to assume they could pull off so much in so little time yet decide to pull the plug on the project without really seeing if it can fly.

C'mon! Let's name few last one pull outs. Honda's quit of WDC and WCC car. Toyota's TF110 looked very promising contender. BMW, Renault? Big companies and their board of directors could throw F1 project easily. There's no sentiment...

[turbof1]

They are in the first year of finally having a fully 'built' and staffed team. It makes little sense to assume they could pull off so much in so little time yet decide to pull the plug on the project without really seeing if it can fly.

C'mon! Let's name few last one pull outs. Honda's quit of WDC and WCC car. Toyota's TF110 looked very promising contender. BMW, Renault? Big companies and their board of directors could throw F1 project easily. There's no sentiment...

If I recall correctly, Honda even issued a statement that it still felt it was the right solution to pull out beginning 2009; even when they saw the car they essentially designed was winning the championship. They absolutely had no regrets about it.

[marcush.]

MGPAMG is a marketing tool and not an engineering exercise as a business model.Ask yourself when last ime you saw Mercedes actually do anything marketing with the formula 1 team....i think it was in the buildup to the german GP when Schu and Niko went to Untertürkheim ...apart from this silence.. and that is CAUSED by the lack of results.Sure everything is locked up in the shelves waiting to be released -when Schumi finally wins and the team fights for championships.If anyone believes in this still.The marketing is short lived these days if things do not materialise..you find othe rpossibilities -MCGyver for example....
Marketing will not assign endless money towards F1 in case the team shows no results .simple.

[Ferraripilot]

it´s a myth that people need time to make an impact.if you have to bring something to the table it will be obvious the instant you are arriving -given the outfit is missing something -
If the team -read companny -does show the same weakness a year or two later still -you can bet the missing link is still missing.

In business, it absolutely takes time for a staff to produce a result. People are not trained into a company paradigm overnight, it's usually a 3-6 month process at minimum for a new staffer to yield a positive work product and even longer to yield results on the level with senior staff. I have no idea how this might operate in F1, but in other businesses this is the norm.

[turbof1]

it´s a myth that people need time to make an impact.if you have to bring something to the table it will be obvious the instant you are arriving -given the outfit is missing something -
If the team -read companny -does show the same weakness a year or two later still -you can bet the missing link is still missing.

In business, it absolutely takes time for a staff to produce a result. People are not trained into a company paradigm overnight, it's usually a 3-6 month process at minimum for a new staffer to yield a positive work product and even longer to yield results on the level with senior staff. I have no idea how this might operate in F1, but in other businesses this is the norm.

You can assume as F1 is essentially a teamsport, your argument might be especially true for a company within F1. Engineers have to work very closely together in a synchronized way. Deploying a new person which was brought in to turn things around, you can't expect inmediately results. He first needs to build up knowhow and build up relationships with co-workers.
The missing link very often is not a problem of the individuals themselves, but the staff as a whole OR the leading persons who want too much a hand in the deciding process. A clear example of that was Toyota. Decision making always had to come from the top in Japan, actually delaying the team to the point where it had updates ready but had to wait a full month before implementing them.

[marcush.]

I very much beg to differ.
I certainly don´t speak of optimised streamlined processes,sure this takes time ...but in my opinion it´s not a streamlining what MGP does need but some core competence a guy who can look up something and tell the specilists if it´s going to work or if it´s a load of crap and order them to start afresh.
Always when some bright guy is coming into the fry you INSTANTLY see results especially when there was something wrong before ..the guy steps in and in a few days he will stumble across some things he has more questions than answers and he will not relent till there is a useful answer...or hire competence and things suddenly jusz take a new ordered directions and the pieces just fall into place naturally..or not and he will point ,out why it cannot work..
In a big company you will of course need a year or so to forge the network ,till you have earned the respect of your collegues and pretty much are a integrated member of the family ..but the impact ...it starts instantly.Everytime.

[turbof1]

I very much beg to differ.
I certainly don´t speak of optimised streamlined processes,sure this takes time ...but in my opinion it´s not a streamlining what MGP does need but some core competence a guy who can look up something and tell the specilists if it´s going to work or if it´s a load of crap and order them to start afresh.
Always when some bright guy is coming into the fry you INSTANTLY see results especially when there was something wrong before ..the guy steps in and in a few days he will stumble across some things he has more questions than answers and he will not relent till there is a useful answer...or hire competence and things suddenly jusz take a new ordered directions and the pieces just fall into place naturally..or not and he will point ,out why it cannot work..
In a big company you will of course need a year or so to forge the network ,till you have earned the respect of your collegues and pretty much are a integrated member of the family ..but the impact ...it starts instantly.Everytime.

There are enough competent people out there, that is really not the problem. Bringing in fresh people generally means bringing in fresh ideas; but it's always the same 2 questions: 1) will people even listen to him and 2) even if they do, will an idea that sounds very reasonable in theory, work in the reality?
I also think you are looking kinda from the perspective "1 good guy can make the difference". That is really not the case in today's business. Succesfull entreprises lean on effective decisionmaking and innovative thinking. One core aspect of that is thinking not as an individual, but as a group. To put it specifically: how many times did you heard a very good idea from somebody else, but inmediately added something to it that made it even better? That's why one person doesn't make the difference: a group will always work out better ideas. You might be suprised, but when a team is facing something like a shortage of df, the team might need not an aerodynamic expert, but a teamplayer who can bring together the group in order to generate knowledge by bringing bits and pieces of information from each individual together.
Believe me, people always say Newey made Red Bull what they are today, and he certainly had an impact, but he too had to fit in such a business model in order to get Red Bull succesfull.

[Richard]

I've seen what marcush is talking about. A good leader joining a dysfunctional team will have a catalytic effect to unlock the latent potential of that team, or knock sense into those who need it.

Admittedly it'd take some time to filter through the design and manufacturing processes, but you should be able to see it rapidly taking place in the day to day activities and communications. For example, the excuses for poor performance that sound like "the dog ate my homework" would stop.

[zyphro]

Believe me, people always say Newey made Red Bull what they are today, and he certainly had an impact, but he too had to fit in such a business model in order to get Red Bull succesfull.

This.

Come on, Newey is not the guy looking for loopholes each and everytime: he is being given far too much credit IMO. I actually feel sorry for the fellow employees in that team, who are not lauded in the same picture.

Fact of the matter is, a successful team needs to be successful in every single area. This is not the case at MGP. In contrast, Ferrari have managed to turn their season around with rapid development; quite a very difficult picture at Maranello.