Mercedes AMG F1 Team 2012

[marcush.]

so no balaclava for x .
And I certainly was right predicting a win in the first races .
Norby and Schumacher were very frank about the situation today:the car has speed ,but the tyres this year is a bit of a lottery as the knowledge is there to adapt the setup to the tyres + conditions..testemony to the qualy positions-BUT as soon as the conditions change the car drops out of the window like a stone.
China was the first race with constant conditions through the weekend.funny enough all the other teams start talking the same about the tyres..
MERCEDES are well prepared for this season and are ,to me a championship contender already.

[munudeges]

My bet on Merc is still on as well............ They're top three material whether they like it or not, and anything less is a failure.

[marcush.]

yup.
Anyone aware of them cranking on downforce from Friday to Saturday ? Norby mentioned something in the post race interviews like:
we saw the car likes downforce and we might be pusrsuing that route in the future as it worked very well...I think they changed their approach fundamentally going away from the higgh topspeed thing they pursued for the last two years.
My guess is the car has now the aero efficiency needed to make this tradeoff feasible.

as for the pitstop glitch:Mercedes had two or three (!) wheelnut issues over the last three seasons and went very deep into the issue introducing the integrated nut system already 2011 ...but who did the analysis coming up with a system that is not failsafe???
the process is called FMEA -and it is a must in everything flying and in automotive industry...I don´t get how it is possible someone did not grasp all the risk and judged a gun failure as a low risk or whatever...

[Maelstrom]

Well Ross Brawn wanted Nico to win a Grand Prix and Schumacher to win another title. One down one to go.

[marcush.]

I´m all for it!

[aduka11]

Britney had very good setup today.

Funny thing is...if you didnt watch any of this season races and took a look on standings...you would think Rosber is dominating MS and beating him soundly trough out this season.

[Ganxxta]

If MS luck continues to be absent, them I'm 100% sure some will say that Rosberg was dominating the whole season, its clearly visible if one is looking at the points^^

The same happened this year during the winter in the famous W03 prelaunch thread -.-

Anyway, I hope MS can finally get an incident free race, its about time.

[ivand911]

Bob Bell is with the team since 1 April 2011 and I think he was responsible for W03. Willis came November 2011 and Costa came 1December 2011. So, I doubt Bigois have the main role in W03.

[Byronrhys]

Guys lets just savour the moment, no bickering about schu vs ros or who made the w03 fast... too much in the last few years time for a little champagne.

[dren]

I'm gonna have another beer to celebrate! Great race! I kept waiting for Rosberg to suddenly lose pace at the front and pit, but no...he went for a 2 stopper! I expected them to do well here but didn't expect a win!

Look at what happened to Raikkonen towards the end, the same thing that happened to Nico at Australia. These tires are really picky. If the temperature changes too much the performance takes a cliff dive. Now let's hope Mercedes can figure out how to set the car up relative to track temperature.

I read Ross say (I think it was Ross) that the car was set up for an expected warmer track temperature. So perhaps the team got lucky with the set up and learned something for the future races.

[Tyler]

I think Mercedes have got a really good team together now, I have absolute faith that they will get on top of any tire issues, if in fact there any remaining.
I'm still gutted about Schumi but I'm really happy Nico got his first win - he really deserved it and it's been a long time coming.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Bob Bell is with the team since 1 April 2011 and I think he was responsible for W03. Willis came November 2011 and Costa came 1December 2011. So, I doubt Bigois have the main role in W03.

Have you not seen the similarities in design between the W02 and W03? They are indeed familial, which tells me this(the W03) is a Bigois baby.
Furthermore, as was pointed out, Bigois wanted the W02 to have the longer wheelbase on 2011 but consensus overruled his choice.

Interesting also that the guy(acting on behalf of an investor) whom asked Mercedes to withdraw just a week or so ago has remained quiet. I wonder if he realises that...

Daimler spends less than half the sum on F1 than it did five years ago and we have nevertheless managed to build a winning team.

And they are still highly visible on the McLaren cars with branding and livery.
Half the investment for twice the exposure.
Good job Mr Haug....not bad for a fat chain smoking journo.

[NewtonMeter]

I'm very interested to hear some saying that Bigois wanted a longer wheelbase. Can anyone give me a link? Not doubting, just interested.

As for my opinion, to me it's fairly obvious that this isn't really a true Costa and Willis baby as they joined too late. But I certainly think they helped polish it to what it is today: a race winner (that feels so good to say). But truth be told, the foundations were penned before they joined.

I do wish however that Merc AMG would put up a decent company structure on their website. I know McLaren used to have a very nice section about senior personnel together with a short bio and company title. I always enjoy knowing as much as possible about the team I support.

Their website, although informative, is somewhat lacking in many respects. A downloads section would have been nice as well. I do enjoy their features though.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

@Nm

Company structures differ all the time. I think the most important thing is that you have the right people people in the right places.
Red Bull have Newey hand drawing cars. This would not work anywhere else.
Ferrari had a spaghetti junction system, it won them 7 titles, and probably wouldnt work anywhere else.

Point is, you gotta do the best with what you have in a harmonious fashion.

[raymondu999]

I don't think NewtonMeter is saying anything bad about the corporate structure. He just wishes there was more information on it