Mercedes AMG F1 W03

A place to discuss the characteristics of the cars in Formula One, both current as well as historical. Laptimes, driver worshipping and team chatter do not belong here.
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Joie de vivre
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Joined: 02 Sep 2010, 10:12

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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AnthonyG wrote:assymetric front wing(?) (there seems to be an extra vertical element to the far left side compared to right)
Image
where? maybe you are confused because of the angle

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pocketmoon
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Joined: 17 Oct 2011, 23:14

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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marcush. wrote:Brawn said they fell out of the working window for the tyres due to ambient temps ...so there is hope for malaysia?
But ambient temps were OK for everyone else :/

The W03 has inherited the same characteristics as last years car; blistering off the start line and then fades more and more as car gets lighter.

If Mercedes can understand why they're so quick off the line then perhaps they'll understand why they eat tyres.
Last edited by pocketmoon on 18 Mar 2012, 21:38, edited 1 time in total.

Huntresa
Huntresa
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Joined: 03 Dec 2011, 11:33

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Joie de vivre wrote:
AnthonyG wrote:assymetric front wing(?) (there seems to be an extra vertical element to the far left side compared to right)
Image
where? maybe you are confused because of the angle
On the right side there is 2 vertical elements but on left only 1.

Huntresa
Huntresa
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Joined: 03 Dec 2011, 11:33

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Highlighted here Image

bot6
bot6
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Joined: 02 Mar 2011, 19:30

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Optical illusion. Because of the angle of the photograph, you can see the leading edges of both parts of the endplate on the right, whereas on the left, the leading edge of the second part of the endplate is hidden behind the first part of the endplate.

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pocketmoon
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Joined: 17 Oct 2011, 23:14

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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How Nico played with Webber and Alonso (time to leader from http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk )


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Byron R
Byron R
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Joined: 08 May 2011, 21:43

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Watching the race, although sometimes the camera shots don't make it easy to see or if they even cover the car. I saw no signs of blistering or graining on either car. If it were a factor of temperature you'd expect them to go faster as they built heat into the tires . Mich like Ferrari last year. They flat out sucked today.

Crucial_Xtreme
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Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Huntresa wrote:
On the right side there is 2 vertical elements but on left only 1.
It is just the angle of the picture. See below. Right click>view image

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See how it switches to the left when the angle of the camera is on the opposite side.
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munudeges
munudeges
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Joined: 10 Jun 2011, 17:08

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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xpensive wrote:The xecutive of xcuses has spoken yet again, wonder if anyone got hurt falling out of that window, sounds a bit scary?
Well, to be fair (and I think this team has had more than a fair chance) we need to see the car at other circuits, but given that other circuits are much hotter than Melbourne was today and tyre wear is likely to be higher......it doesn't look great. I don't see how Malaysia will improve things to be honest.

Mr.S
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Joined: 09 Apr 2011, 18:21

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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The car is good bar the tyre degradation. The area where Mercedes are really suffering is Mechanical Grip,Traction & slow corner speed. They are loosing atleast 3-4 tenths in those areas to Mclaren even with DRS & F-duct Rear Wing giving a big straightline speed boost.

Aerodynamically the car is good. In S2 in qualifying which has lots of fast corners the car was the quickest. Malayasia has plenty of fast corners & straights so the W03 should do well. But there are a couple of hairpins & slow corners as well.

Costa needs to do something. I dont know if a lot can be done mechanically now,there is only 1 week till Malaysia so I dont think we should expect anything substantial. There is 2-3 weeks after that till China so maybe they will have an upgrade & then another big one at Mugello.

Mechanically this car is somewhat of a DOG considering how Close the field is.

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ArchAngel
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Joined: 15 Feb 2010, 11:22

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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munudeges wrote:
xpensive wrote:
marcush. wrote:Brawn said they fell out of the working window for the tyres due to ambient temps ...so there is hope for malaysia?
The xecutive of xcuses has spoken yet again, wonder if anyone got hurt falling out of that window, sounds a bit scary?
Well, to be fair (and I think this team has had more than a fair chance) we need to see the car at other circuits, but given that other circuits are much hotter than Melbourne was today and tyre wear is likely to be higher... it doesn't look great. I don't see how Malaysia will improve things to be honest.
What Ross said might well be true, but what's inexcusable would be the design & engineering group's repeated inability to get to grips with the car's tyre degradation issues.

The team probably quietly fancied their chances in qualy, and set the cars up accordingly. They may have hoped to get in front of the Maccas and delay them from disappearing into the distance too soon, thinking that a late SC period could then bring the race back within their reach. Nico's Q3 mistake clearly cost him a top 3 spot. Bar for the opening lap muggings the Mercs dealt GRO, VET & WEB, it was plain to see during the race that both cars were no longer quite as fast as the potential they showed during qualy, regardless of any FW/RW/DRS magic they may have used back then. (Consequently, I expect them to take a less aggressive approach to qualy in Malaysia in lieu of a race setup that would allow them to finish the race strongly and collect precious points.)

It's possible that this qualy-biased setup caused Nico to fade badly in the race. Still, Schumi 'struggled' better with the setup & tyres and could've gone on to finish inside the top 5, if not for his car's flukey gearbox:
MSC wrote:"I was trying different gears and occasionally the drive came back, but in the end, I had to go onto the grass to avoid the risk of the car being forced into a spin."
There's still hope for the remainder of the season. For as Brawn himself mentioned during winter testing, the organization is now better positioned to react to unfolding situations and develop the car accordingly throughout the season.

jasonrobert
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Joined: 19 Dec 2010, 14:08

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Next few races will decide the order of the teams. Michael did not get to finish the race, and as we have seen from the past year or so, he has most of the time had better races than nico, whereas nico has had better qualifying. Saturday and Sunday was a reverse of this, and I cannot see that this was intentional. At least during qualifying the car did seem an awful lot better.

I think (and hope) it is just some set up issues that need to be sorted. Id be very much surprised that a team that has got two very good drivers, and a good design team can go backwards. surely the car cant be worse than last year????? :|

aduka11
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Joined: 17 Feb 2012, 14:29

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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ArchAngel wrote: There's still hope for the remainder of the season. For as Brawn himself mentioned during winter testing, the organization is now better positioned to react to unfolding situations and develop the car accordingly throughout the season.
Actually neither Nico or Michael had quali-based setup....Most of the time in testings they were doing Race simulations and longer stints...Car was developed for longer runs.

Hemsy
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Joined: 27 Jul 2011, 07:03

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Does anyone know if Schumi's pace was affected by the gearbox before it failed or did he also suffer from high degradation resulting in him falling behind the Mclaren's so easily?

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pocketmoon
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Joined: 17 Oct 2011, 23:14

Re: Mercedes AMG F1 W03

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Hemsy wrote:Does anyone know if Schumi's pace was affected by the gearbox before it failed or did he also suffer from high degradation resulting in him falling behind the Mclaren's so easily?
Pop over to f1fanatic.co.uk and have a look at the interactive lap charts - the second one that shows the gap to the leader. It shows that Schumi's pace was consistent and better than Nico's (he was falling back less per lap) until lap 11. Unfortunately it also shows that after leapfrogging the field at the start both Merc drivers basically held up the field Red Bulls. Schumi was loosing 1s a lap to button and once past Vettel was closing at 0.5s per lap.