Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[wunderkind]

The more we hope from this team...the more they disappoint. Today was the perfect example of it, clearly its a known fact that the w03 is high on tyre wear yet they put MSC on a 1-stopper, i mean it was a sure top 5 finish if it was a proper 2-stop. Those guys clearly dont know their own car...seeing those pitstops again one of the strengths last year, they hav managed to lose it too. Cant help but feel sorry for MSC n ROS, clearly they deserve a better team than this.
Ofcourse i'd love to be proven wrong if they sumhow eventually manage to sort out the cars n all the other things but u know at the back of your mind that aint gonna happen, atleast not this year..

Yes, an utter disappointment. No way for the car going to be able to do well on a one-stopper. But the team probably took a gamble and hoped for a safety car period in the latter part of the race. That would be the only possibility for a podium finish.

[Vasconia]

Great race from Michael with some great battles with the Force Indias, Kimi and Sebastian. It was imposible to do more but the strategy has not been the best one. What happens with the pit stops? last years they used to be the fatest one but this season they are very far from the best ones.

The car has been god in the first stint(what a surprise) bun then the pace has been awful.

[clipsy1H]

The more we hope from this team...the more they disappoint. Today was the perfect example of it, clearly its a known fact that the w03 is high on tyre wear yet they put MSC on a 1-stopper, i mean it was a sure top 5 finish if it was a proper 2-stop. Those guys clearly dont know their own car...seeing those pitstops again one of the strengths last year, they hav managed to lose it too. Cant help but feel sorry for MSC n ROS, clearly they deserve a better team than this.
Ofcourse i'd love to be proven wrong if they sumhow eventually manage to sort out the cars n all the other things but u know at the back of your mind that aint gonna happen, atleast not this year..

Yes, an utter disappointment. No way for the car going to be able to do well on a one-stopper. But the team probably took a gamble and hoped for a safety car period in the latter part of the race. That would be the only possibility for a podium finish.

the chances were turning up safety car? already from the beginning was a big accident in which 4 cars out + other 6 cars that were not counted 10 cars. was simply a mistake they had to stop him when Rosberg block Kimi and Hulk.

should not forget that Michael exit behind Ricciardo and stayed there four laps . If mechanics change by 0.5 sec faster it have 4 laps on new tires which can save time. But he lost 6-8 seconds behind Ricciardo

[zyphro]

the chances were turning up safety car?

It's called taking a gamble. The Merc did not have the pace to be on the podium; get over it gosh.

[clipsy1H]

the chances were turning up safety car?

It's called taking a gamble. The Merc did not have the pace to be on the podium; get over it gosh.

did you watch this race??? why you talk about pace when Schumacher on first stint was P2 ? and set best lap with old tires? he also fight with Kimi for 3-4 laps when his tires were older than 9 laps. today was a good pace stop blame car .... it was impossible to finish in the top 5 with only one stop

[zyphro]

the chances were turning up safety car?

It's called taking a gamble. The Merc did not have the pace to be on the podium; get over it gosh.

did you watch this race??? why you talk about pace when Schumacher on first stint was P2 ? and set best lap with old tires? he also fight with Kimi for 3-4 laps when his tires were older than 9 laps. today was a good pace stop blame car .... it was impossible to finish in the top 5 with only one stop

I've wasted enough time with you, and not willing to go any further. You're just repeating exactly what you were saying in the race thread; quit it.

[marcush.]

One wonders how Mercedes who have the car eating tyres for breakfast comes up with 1 stop strategies...It made them look good or better than one could hope ....
A cool strategy for Schumacher would have been to start on primes switch to options in the safety car period and have the second set of options late in the race ,but earlier than he did today.
It would not have made for such an exciting race as he would not have occupied 2nd and possibly he´d not have those fights with Vettel ..but it may have brought him a bit further forward.
At least a fitting result with p7 for Schumacher -his favorite number-
I´m pretty sure now he will end the season on equal points with rosberg who still finished all the races this year....

i think they are chasing the wrong pony as obviously they just look at degradation instead of how quick the others are with new tyres.
It´s fine to hold them together the tyres but what about all the others running almost two second per lap quicker than before..They missed that trick methinks.
the car is indeed quick enough but they try to chase something which is just not available.

[zyphro]

I´m pretty sure now he will end the season on equal points with rosberg who still finished all the races this year....

I don't see that happening unless the car is capable of competing at the front - remember, Rosberg scored most of his points when the car was at the sharp end at the grid. Whilst Michael's kept failing on him.

[marcush.]

the opportunity is next week ...monza will suit that dog of a car methinks and maybe finally the penny drops with strategy now!!

[zyphro]

the opportunity is next week ...monza will suit that dog of a car methinks and maybe finally the penny drops with strategy now!!

Mhmm, it would be amazing if he was able to win at Monza; he's won there 5 times in the past.

[zyphro]

Does anyone know, on which lap Schumacher had a gearbox problem?

[siskue2005]

around the time he was figthing with kimi
thats why lost drive running upto eau rouge and kimi passed him

[marcush.]

around the time he was figthing with kimi
thats why lost drive running upto eau rouge and kimi passed him

don´t think so .
His quickest lap was the first flyer after his second pitstop and then he nursed it to the end.
Kimi outdragging him down to eau rouge was the obvious sign to make that 2nd stop.Kimi was lucky that schu did allow him to play ..in his first career we would have seen both coming out with a few wheels lost I fear.

The piece about Schumi broadcasted by RTL pre race was very very touching.
He openly admitted that Benetton cheated back then and he admitted to realising todays he should not have allowed this back then..

This comparison shows very nicely how two cars with similar pace but differing strategies get along:
Hulk was marginally slower and suffered degradation no worse than Schumi but stopped early and could exploit the tyres much better...even though he could or should have stopped one or two laps earlier looking at his speed at the end of the race...
http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?page ... r1=Michael Schumacher&dr2=Nico Hulkenberg

[elf341]

Yes, it looks like he had the issue on lap 38. He did a 1:53.5 on his first flyer, and then a 1:58, 5 seconds slower. It appears he managed to adapter his driving style subsequently to achieve the low 1:55s.
Rosberg was able to pull off mid 1:53s after his last stop so assuming that MSC could match that pace, it's still unlikely he would have caught webber, e.g.:

Code: Select all

lp      MSC      WEB     delta
37  1.53507  1.54084  12.22400
38  1.53507  1.55160  10.57100
39  1.53507  1.54480   9.59800
40  1.53507  1.54029   9.07600
41  1.53507  1.53784   8.79900
42  1.53507  1.53768   8.53800
43  1.53507  1.54316   7.72900
44  1.53507  1.54653   6.58300

Still 6 seconds off. MSC would have needed to do on average 1:52.6s to catch Webber, nigh on impossible I would think.
The strategy failover A->B was the failing, if they had called a 2 stop from the start, AND Schumacher hadn't had (another!!) technical failure with losing his 6th gear, he may have been able to stay ahead of Massa and got a P5.

I have to say, though, that I'm growing fatigued by these persistent technical failures by this team. Schumacher's (new) engine had to be replaced before the start of the race - thus removing it from the standard engine pool - having barely done any running at all, only P3 and Qualy! This is going to further compromise MSC later in the season, as he has essentially one less engine than the others! So much for premium MHPE engines going to Merc?

[fiohaa]

The piece about Schumi broadcasted by RTL pre race was very very touching.
He openly admitted that Benetton cheated back then and he admitted to realising todays he should not have allowed this back then..

can you expand on this - the RTL piece?
i find it very hard to believe that schumi would say that in his 94/95 championship winning years, that the car was illegal - infact, there is no way he said this - so i dont believe you lol.

The only thing I think he could have been referring to was the Spa 94 race when his car was found illegal coz of the plank. Maybe you are confused?

i doubt he would mention stuff about a 'switched off traction control' etc...etc...

got a link to video or anything?