bhallg2k wrote:
It's a damn-good thing Mercedes only has to jump through three hoops to get something done, and those hoops are at least all in the same time zone.
(Just a general note: I probably revel in Mercedes failure a bit more than most around here since I'm a Ferrari fan. But, I don't think the humor displayed here is necessarily a denigration of the team so much as it's just a reaction to what's happening. There are typically four reactions to any given event: indifference, anger, sadness and laughter. Indifference doesn't participate; anger is annoying; sadness is
really annoying; and laughter is, hopefully, infectious. No matter the reaction, though - and this is important - the event remains the same. It's not like making light of a situation changes it for the worse, yanno?)
I liked the humor, especially the joke with the toilet
. But you know, it was a little bit
too much. You have to draw a line somewhere, else humor becomes outright cynicism.
I do agree with you: they should have kept updating the car constantly. It's an arms race, you can never lay back. Mercedes did that and paid the price (although what you said about them not updating after their win isn't true either. They brought a significant sidepod update to Monaco). It'll serve as a damn good lesson. McLaren made the same mistake this season between Barcelona and Germany, but were quick enough to do something about it and still have a good shot at both titles.
However, I still believe it's a great team. It's still learning; the fact they had a good car begin this season was new for them; they just didn't know how to cope with it.
The team spent innumerable resources on their Daffy Duct, which, by most accounts, "stalls" the front wing when DRS is activated. They did this despite both the limited scope of development for such a device because of the rules regarding DRS deployment and the fact that front-wing drag is several steps from the top of the list of drag-inducing structures. I think this was a bad design decision, and that's born out by the team's results and because no other team has even bothered to copy it. (Full disclosure: I actually think the design has other intentions. I just can't prove it. But, whatever it's doing, it's not helping them win.)
The question is: did they know that the development scope was limited? We did see Renault last year being quick out of the box with their front exit exhausts, but then suddenly were facing the problem they could not develop it further. Even Ferrari this year took a wrong turn concerning development.
The team missed the "Coanda" exhaust boat by more than half a season while other teams have used it with considerable success, even those who did not have the solution as part of their original designs.
On the other hand, Lotus is doing remarkably well without it. Coanda exhausts are indeed bound to bring progress on the table, but it isn't everything obviously.
