Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I think some of us have already went through why Bigois was never good enough.

Maybe you are right.
One thing is certain, since Bigois was sidelined...the team are throwing more and more updates at the car that appear to work straight away.

[xpensive]

Now hold on a second, what is this, you guys are not supposed to be in any kind of agreement whatsoever?

As for Bigois, his days were obviously numbered with the advent of Willis, anything else would have been strange.

[ArchAngel]

HELLO EVERYONE, JUST A FRIENDLY NEWBIE INTRODUCING HIMSELF...

Welcome to the forum, Johnny.

...how will schumacher do in Canada

The general consensus is that Merc & Schu should be competitive at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Aside from his 7 victories with Ferrari there, Montreal was a highlight race for Michael last year, having just missed out on the podium. Along with any momentum he might still be carrying from his Monaco pole performance, he'll probably qualify & start well. But given his God-awful luck, a race incident or mechanical failure is almost a mathematical certainty.

...will mercedes stop these issues with his car

Right after the Monaco DNF, Brawn said "we need to make sure we eliminate the problems for him, starting in Canada." Failing that in Montreal, Ross will probably say "we need to make sure we eliminate the problems for him, starting in Valencia." This pattern will most likely recur all the way to Brazil, where he'll next say "we need to make sure we eliminate the problems for him, starting next season... Eh, what's that? Michael says he doesn't want to put up with this cr@p anymore? Oh..."

[marcush.]

I certainly don ot subscribe to the bad luck theories in engineering .
So my view is:two cars and they happen to have at least one car in technical trouble every race.That´s simply unacceptable.
Schumacher had his second!!! technical DNF in Monaco in 3 years of his second career + a clear fault of the pitwall encouraging him to overtake Alonso on the run to the finish line in year one which cost him sure points...so in fact they let him down three times of three attempts.That´s not Bigois fault it´s entirely Brawns responsibility.

We can see not everything is well within the team still and I´m not sure if Bigois sidelining is really the reason for the improved form here.
The car is clearly a development of the W01-W02 lineage ,and the question is what is Willis or costas input in all this .
Maybe the new guys were only needed to stop the developments that do not yield advantgae sin performance (blade rollover structure for example)..

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Now hold on a second, what is this, you guys are not supposed to be in any kind of agreement whatsoever?

As for Bigois, his days were obviously numbered with the advent of Willis, anything else would have been strange.

Wow X, you have 7 points! Can you cash them in for something?
Whatever you do, dont upset the MS brigade.

[ArchAngel]

...As for Bigois, his days were obviously numbered with the advent of Willis, anything else would have been strange.

True. The moment rumors of initial contact with Willis came out, the writing was already on the wall for Bigois. Anyway, I wish him well... Although I can't imagine how working at the Maranello pressure cooker under desperate iron chef Di Montezemolo is gonna help him rediscover his creativity & aerodynamic mojo. Good luck with that.

About Mike Elliott, then -- comments on his CV and body of work? Does this guy have the pedigree to rise up and become to Geoff Willis what Prodromou is to Newey?

[xpensive]

...
Wow X, you have 7 points! Can you cash them in for something?
Whatever you do, dont upset the MS brigade.

I believe I got them from the Ferrari brigade for my analysis of the front suspension of the F2012?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

I'll be sure to stop by that thread!

Still think Mercedes are going to run Nissan-AMG anytime soon?

[marcush.]

If you knew what I´m walking by each and every day in my work you would not talk like this JET....

hint:
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/news ... 14118.html
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/news ... 10354.html

so in 2013 Infinity will according to AMuS have Daimler engines that´s an official fact by the looks of things ...how long will it take them to cooperate in development of engines for F1?

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

If you knew what I´m walking by each and every day in my work you would not talk like this JET....

hint:
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/news ... 14118.html

I'm aware of the Renault/Nissan-Daimler alliance. Hell the new A-Class has French engines! Who would have that?
But, Infiniti are source Mercedes running gear as part of the deal. This does not include AMG engines which are bespoke to Mercedes-Benz.
A symbiosis for all parties in a world where the Koreans are turning replacement models every 24 months!
Bottom line is cost savings.

Can anyone see Mercedes ditching the team now? Honest question. The W03 is proving better than I anticipated and had the RB8 licked for pace IMO round Monaco and China, who would have though this 6 months ago?
Zetsche has played a blinder, Getting Mercedes back officially was never going to be easy but who can genuinely argue that it wasnt the correct decision.
Barring the short selling by Brawn initially(yes), Mercedes have turned a corner. The fanfare has died down, and the spotlight has moved to other pastures allowing them to get on with their job.
Remember the days of the W01 and W02(first half of the season) where every minuscule upgrade was given a trumpeting in the Media?
Well the W03 had pretty much more mods at any single time heading into this GP and I hear next to nothing regards it.

Overall, I'm over the moon for Mercedes and it shows how far they have come that 2nd place in Monaco was greeted with "what could have been". Pirelli have played a part in this too, but most of all I think its the abolishment of the EBD which has seen Mercedes become that bit more competitive(along with other midfield runners)
Mind you I wouldnt mind an AMG GTR(Skyline), Can you imagine that?

[zyphro]

The W03 is proving better than I anticipated and had the RB8 licked for pace IMO round Monaco and China, who would have though this 6 months ago?
Zetsche has played a blinder, Getting Mercedes back officially was never going to be easy but who can genuinely argue that it wasnt the correct decision.

You're right. However, I feel the re-organisation is due to Brawn excellence and the influence of Schumacher. If you read Costa's interview shortly after his announcement, this was pretty evident.

Re. Monaco, the Merc for sure was the car to beat. I think Schumacher, had he started on pole would've won by some margin. So too would've NR, but IMO not to the same extent.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Point being the hardware was there for both drivers.

As a team they have moved forward markedly.

[marcush.]

right.
Mercedes have met my expectations in all but reliability .
The car is really competitive and has the right balance of adventurous designs and conservatism in retaining the good points of the work done already.

I think the arrival of costa and Willis has helped Bell to prevent the wrong ideas reaching the car ....I think they have turned a corner with effective upgrades.

[ArchAngel]

It's certainly a relief that the works team can now finally stand (or race) toe-to-toe (or wheel-to-wheel) on even terms against their strongest customer team. Hopefully that Mike Elliot character will also turn out to be a strong addition to their aero department.

Now all Merc needs is to get its act together on the strategy front and be able to think & react quickly on their feet wrt developing race conditions/situations. One gets the impression that the way the team always splits its strategies, only 1 of their drivers has any realistic chance of finishing strongly. Gone are the days when the Ross-&-Schu combine could steal wins from faster rivals by dint of well-executed strategies and brilliant tactical thinking on-the-fly. Surely that couldn't have been all Luca Baldisseri at Ferrari, since their partnership also yielded quite a few sleight-of-hand wins during their time together at Benetton?

[Gerhard Berger]

It's certainly a relief that the works team can now finally stand (or race) toe-to-toe (or wheel-to-wheel) on even terms against their strongest customer team. Hopefully that Mike Elliot character will also turn out to be a strong addition to their aero department.

Now all Merc needs is to get its act together on the strategy front and be able to think & react quickly on their feet wrt developing race conditions/situations. One gets the impression that the way the team always splits its strategies, only 1 of their drivers has any realistic chance of finishing strongly. Gone are the days when the Ross-&-Schu combine could steal wins from faster rivals by dint of well-executed strategies and brilliant tactical thinking on-the-fly. Surely that couldn't have been all Luca Baldisseri at Ferrari, since their partnership also yielded quite a few sleight-of-hand wins during their time together at Benetton?

Baldisseri was Irvine's engineer no?

Brawn was head of on track operations at Ferrari (it is quite typical for the technical director to take this role). I would be surprised if he didn't play some role in the pit calls at Mercedes.