Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[Dragonfly]

He better leaves on time and the bosses pull the plug of that joke called MGP.

[Dragonfly]

F1PitRadio ‏@F1PitRadio
MSC, "Sorry guys, there's not more in it"

I had in mind the whole period of participation as a Mercedes team. This year their slide back is even more catastrophic.

[Morteza]

The car had no upgrades since Monaco. Were we expecting anything better today? No. It is where the team really is at the moment. They are so very lost in the development race. Zyphro is right. They were pretty good up to Monaco, but when they removed that cascade from the front wing and didn't bring any upgrade, their pace dropped. If they are going go keep the car the same for the rest of the season we will see them getting worse results. If they have an upgrade package, it better be a good one.

[sidmiester]

appalling result but expected! i didnt think they would improve much especially because of break with mandatory factory shutdown.
still, going back few months ago when ross brawn said focusing of tires has become a greater importance than bringing development upgrades... that is the most stupid thing to ever hear from a man who have more than 30 years of experience in motorsport!
i dont think monza race would be enough for them to bring updates but from singapore onwards im dying to see some substantial upgrades!!! would be pissed of they dont!!

on their recent small upgrade with a lotus-lookalike DRS system i don't get it, why they need to focus on straightline speed when they are suffering in other areas...

[zyphro]

on their recent small upgrade with a lotus-lookalike DRS system i don't get it, why they need to focus on straightline speed when they are suffering in other areas...

Indeed: they're loosing what? 2-3 tenths in S1 and S3, whilst losing a SECOND in S2 .

[Vasconia]

F1PitRadio ‏@F1PitRadio
MSC, "Sorry guys, there's not more in it"

I had in mind the whole period of participation as a Mercedes team. This year their slide back is even more catastrophic.

"Sorry guys, there´s not more in it" an excellent sentence to explain what happens, its soooo sad.

[sidmiester]

on their recent small upgrade with a lotus-lookalike DRS system i don't get it, why they need to focus on straightline speed when they are suffering in other areas...

Indeed: they're loosing what? 2-3 tenths in S1 and S3, whilst losing a SECOND in S2 .

torro rosso are faster than mercedes lol...

its a disappointment, lets see how they do it come singapore... i dont think they would bring big upgrades in monza but..

well even with massive upgrades i doubt that mercedes would be fast. .. they have been too late... with top teams mercedes is more than 1 sec.slower per lap more than 1.5 ....

[marcush.]

Well ,old men get stubborn over time..
Seriously they seem to hgave realised now that not developping the car was complete nonsense .I understand development is there to erase shortcomings of your project .They came up with the weird idea of adjusting the car to suit the tyres as a development strategy.
All the other teams realised they need to improve rear downforce without adding drag.It looks quite likely their decision and analysis process is seriouly flawed.

[Ozan]

They will tell later that they move the focus to the 2013 season. Every year it's the same thing.

[FoxHound]

Well ,old men get stubborn over time..
Seriously they seem to hgave realised now that not developping the car was complete nonsense .I understand development is there to erase shortcomings of your project .They came up with the weird idea of adjusting the car to suit the tyres as a development strategy.
All the other teams realised they need to improve rear downforce without adding drag.It looks quite likely their decision and analysis process is seriouly flawed.

When did Loic Bigois leave the team? Is it possible that when he left, all development stopped until the new guy comes in?
Seem reasonable, as the guy in question is Mike Eliott right? What was the first thing we saw added to the Mercedes since he came along.....a Lotus style monkey seat.
I Think Mercedes stopped development the moment Bigois walked out of Brackley, in anticipation of the new man's direction.
You can see that in the car, and you can see that in the results.
I guess Mercedes would have damned next year if they kept bigois, but bit the bullet. I wonder if it will turn out ok for em.

[zyphro]

They will tell later that they move the focus to the 2013 season. Every year it's the same thing.

I'd rather they did - lets face it: what can they achieve now? They've lost far too much ground. They should experiment with things for next year.

[Morteza]

Post qualifying quotes:

Michael Schumacher

Well, what a pity today. I am really sorry for my fans but I am afraid I have to say that I got pretty much everything that we could from today. The car was not quick enough, and especially in the mid-sector we were too slow. We now have to take it as it is and try to do the best we can in the race tomorrow. We will have further steps coming soon, so we will go on fighting.

Nico Rosberg

This weekend isn’t really running to plan so far. Starting from the back of the grid tomorrow is really disappointing, although I had no chance to prepare my car due to the gearbox problem this morning. So it took a bit of a time to find the right set-up in qualifying and it didn’t work out well at the end. I hope I can gain some positions in the race but I’m not overly optimistic as our car is not one of the quickest on this track. I will definitely push hard.

Ross Brawn

It’s been a disappointing day all round for us. Qualifying was tough, and it proved pretty tricky to get the tyres in the right operating window. In fairness to Nico, he didn’t have much of a chance as he missed most of P3 this morning, the only opportunity to have had some time on a dry track. Michael had a reasonable run and that was about the best we could have achieved with the car that we have at the moment. Clearly it’s not good enough and we will continue working very hard to make improvements.

Norbert Haug

Michael got everything out of the car that was possible today. It did not help us that the rain yesterday meant that no preparation for today was possible but of course that applies to everybody. On top of that, Nico did not get any running in this morning's only dry session due to a gearbox problem which will give him with a five place grid penalty. This is of course not the start that we have wished for after the summer break. Our target is to do a better job tomorrow.

Now they are mentioning the car and the improvements to come.

[marcush.]

they had no TD for 2 years and the loss of Mr.Bigois who was not prepared to report to Mr Willis would stop them making upgrades?
As i see it .Bigois was always reluctant of change ....BGP001 changed quite a bit but did somehow not improve ,W01 changed a bit but just because the original blade airbox was not finished in time....W02 needed half a season to adopt a exhaust system that was clearly necessary for success ....in all the years we have not seen much in terms of front wing development-they started out with a very good concept but did not really find a ways to develop it further.
Also each and every year they had fundamental flaws in their concept and never really solved these .
BGP001 had serious trouble to get the tyres into their operating window and as soon as the temps dropped they were nowhere....w01 suffered from a general lack of grip -never fully disclosed the reason for it (chassis stiffness?),W02 suffered again from general lack of outright speed ,and was compromised in development from a bodged cooling system combined with a complete fail to understand the exhaust blown difusser concept .W03 was quick but only on certain tracks and in qualy and lacked development potential (other than tyre understanding).
MGP still has a reliability issue -now it´s Rosbergs side of the garage being hit by misfortune ....

Interestingly they quote Michael as extracting everything from what was available but still make excuses for not having more time due to the rained out friday and Rosbergs gearbox issue...??? what now ..the car was good for the time Schumacher did ..so where is the surprise ? To have a gearbox issue in FP3? it does not change much really as points are
not really on the cards tomorrow by the looks of things.....SO WHY NOT REMOVE ROSBERGS CAR FROM PARC FERME AND GIVE THEDEVELOPMENT PARTS SOME TRACK TIME????

[zyphro]

SO WHY NOT REMOVE ROSBERGS CAR FROM PARC FERME AND GIVE THEDEVELOPMENT PARTS SOME TRACK TIME????

I agree 100%.

[FoxHound]

Marcush,

It could then be said, bearing in mind the flaws present in the BGP001/W01/W02....possibly even W03 family line that Bigois was in part responsible for this tardiness in coming to races with developments that clearly worked for other teams.
When did he leave though? April?
As I see it, this team did not have a Helmsman for 4 months until Elliot arrived, it's no wonder they look all at sea.
This in itself is quite bad given that the W03 was a top3 car at the first few races of the season up to and including Monaco.
If we plot a chart, from the comings and goings, to that of the results, they correlate.
Maybe Brawn had enough of Bigois, and gave him the sideways shove in preference to Elliot, and Bigois didnt want it. We know he has already worked with and under other's(Zander is an example). So why not Willis?