Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[raymondu999]

I'd be surprised if he isn't at least taking SOME part in strategy. To be honest that's the one thing that sticks in my mind about Brawn - he's very streetsmart and his "strategy acumen," as it were, is mighty. Case in point - France 2004, Hungary 1998. On a slightly more subdued note - Bahrain 2009, though a lot of that was somewhat ignored.

[ArchAngel]

Baldisseri was Irvine's engineer no?

Up 'til 1999, yes.

...In 1995 he became the race engineer to Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger, a role he would later go on to fulfill for both Eddie Irvine and more famously 7 time World Champion Michael Schumacher...

...In 2000 he became Michael Schumacher’s Race Engineer and helped guide Michael to Ferrari’s first joint WDC and WCC in over 20 years...

...After three successive world driver and constructor championships and a few cigars along the way... Luca felt it was time for a new challenge and in 2003 briefly became the technical coordinator between the factory and the track.

However due to changes in F1, strategy was becoming an ever more important and difficult role to fulfill and Ross Brawn was struggling on his own to analyse all the hundred of different parameters involved in understanding a car in race conditions. Recognising Luca was a gifted statistician and keen strategist, Ross personally asked for him to become his assistant on the pitwall to help him prepare the race strategy for each race.

As chief race engineer/strategist between 2003 and 2006 it was Luca’s job with his team to take the data from testing and qualifying and prepare race strategies for both of the drivers. For each race weekend Luca’s job was to prepare a selection of feasible race strategies, from which Ross could work with on the pitwall...

[ArchAngel]

...one thing that sticks in my mind about Brawn - he's very streetsmart and his "strategy acumen," as it were, is mighty...

Indeed. A few of the surprise wins they pulled off during the early Ferrari rebuilding years were not only down to Schu's ability back then to overachieve in an otherwise non-winning car, but were also in conjunction with some finely judged pit-stop strategies. And it is on that backdrop that I expressed puzzlement over Merc's recurring tendency to settle for conservative & uninspired strategies, sometimes bogged down by questionable tyre selection and/or pit-stop timing, as well as poor reaction to evolving situations & conditions on track.

An excerpt from the gem they pulled off at Ferrari back in Magny-Cours 2004.

...he had got ahead of Alonso using a smart slash-and-burn four-stop strategy. The Renault was quick and because overtaking is so tough at Magny-Cours might have stayed ahead if Ferrari had stuck to a conventional strategy but such is the self-confidence in this team that when Race Strategist Luca Baldesserri came up with the idea of doing four-stops, Michael was happy to give it a try.

"We had nothing to lose," said Ross Brawn. "There was no risk because we were stuck in second and it would have been difficult to overtake. We needed to run in free air and to be able to use the car."

That was what Schumacher did and the Renault boys could do nothing to stop the apparently inevitable from happening...

[Darknight]

I know the car recieved a major upgrade for the Monaco GP, but there was also another major factor that changed. If i am not mistaken this is the first time the SuperSoft (Red) tire was used this season. These were the allocated tires for 2012 so far:

Aus: White(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Mal: Silver(hard)/White(soft)
Chn: White(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Bhr: White(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Esp: Silver(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Mon: Yellow(hard)/Red(soft)

And Canada will be Yellow(hard)/Red(soft)

Is it possible that the W03 works better with the Yellow/Red tires? It would be great if someone can do a compare between the W03 and other cars when on different tires.

[ivand911]

2012 tyre allocation:
Circuit.......2012 Option.......2012 Prime
Melbourne....Soft ................Medium
Sepang........Medium............Hard
Shanghai.....Soft.................Medium
Bahrain.......Soft.................Medium
Monte-Carlo..Super-soft..........Soft
Montreal......Super-soft..........Soft
Valencia.......Soft.................Medium
Silverstone....Soft.................Hard

[Huntresa]

I know the car recieved a major upgrade for the Monaco GP, but there was also another major factor that changed. If i am not mistaken this is the first time the SuperSoft (Red) tire was used this season. These were the allocated tires for 2012 so far:

Aus: White(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Mal: Silver(hard)/White(soft)
Chn: White(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Bhr: White(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Esp: Silver(hard)/Yellow(soft)
Mon: Yellow(hard)/Red(soft)

And Canada will be Yellow(hard)/Red(soft)

Is it possible that the W03 works better with the Yellow/Red tires? It would be great if someone can do a compare between the W03 and other cars when on different tires.

So far there doesnt seem to be any difference between W03 and other cars on the tyre deg rly. Only in Australia they had some issues but since then it seems to be on par and rosberg was gr8 in china on tyres so

[Guisson]

Correct me if I'm wrong but The W03 is "kind" to its Tyres only if the track ° does not exceed a certain limit .. ( In China it was pretty cold same in Monaco after 20 minutes ou 30 it was getting colder) , by judging its performance in Bahrain and Montmelo the tyre issues weren't that solved..

[Huntresa]

Correct me if I'm wrong but The W03 is "kind" to its Tyres only if the track ° does not exceed a certain limit .. ( In China it was pretty cold same in Monaco after 20 minutes ou 30 it was getting colder) , by judging its performance in Bahrain and Montmelo the tyre issues weren't that solved..

Everyone is struggling and Looking at bahrain and spain a 5th and 7th place isnt bad, no huge dips in performance and now a 2nd place.

[FW17]

That car W03 is built like a tank!

MS's cars has got whopped so many times, but he is always able to continue as if nothing happened.

Compare that to hamilton's car at monza 2011, the smallest of nudges and the car was out.

[Chrisaix]

Yes, w03's external components are strong but i cannot say about the internal. All of michael's failure are internal, they have to work on that if they want to improve on their WCC campaign.

[ArchAngel]

^ The loose nut from China was more ancillary/external than internal, 'tho.

But yeah -- E20 left rear banging onto the W03 front right & pinning the rest of the car to the barrier... Definitely surprised that Schu was still able to continue for quite a few more laps after that.

I can almost imagine how the team planned for that contingency & talked about it during pre-race briefing: "Alright Michael, we've done some anti-Grosjean reinforcements to your car so it can survive any likely first corner argy-bargies. That should give you the best possible chance of finishing the race & collecting good points. Now go get 'em, champ!" The team then neglects to double-check the car's fuel feed system.

[marcush.]

I think Mercedes Grand Prix has done a brilliant job in supplying the w03 with a lot of potential in terms of taking a knock and still being able to carry on .
Sure the wheelnut issue is something they have still not found the final answer to ..but I have the feeling we will see something sooner than later.
As with the fuel pick up ,maybe it was a knockon effect from the hit towards the barrier? maybe we get some info about this..

[Forza]

marcush@ "As with the fuel pick up ,maybe it was a knockon effect from the hit towards the barrier? maybe we get some info about this."
Scrabs said it was one of the lifter fuel pumps that failed to provide enough fuel for high pressure pump. Fuel pressure was dropping onwards.

[marcush.]

marcush@ "As with the fuel pick up ,maybe it was a knockon effect from the hit towards the barrier? maybe we get some info about this."
Scrabs said it was one of the lifter fuel pumps that failed to provide enough fuel for high pressure pump. Fuel pressure was dropping onwards.

sure ther eare failure modes that could be triggered by a side impact? if so it may be a underestimation of forces sustained in race conditions.

[maestro272]

Merc looking for senior aerodynamicist...Something to do with L.Bigois departure?