Schumacher 2010 insight and 2011 W02 testing

The double floor is indeed fantastic and I believe other teams will pick up on it if they are able. Conjecture has been that W02 may have a double floor for their new sidepods as the crash structure bars are in places which are indicative of that being a possibility

 

The crash test fail is a rumor. The official statement from Brawn is, "I have no comment on that". While Haug said, "it's not going to be a problem" (meaning the crash test).


Yeah. Car is slow. Sad but true. If they have a neat exhaust gizmo and a successful grouping of other updates and find their 1+ second they will be fine. That's a tall order though. Then again, how many teams are completely tearing down their cars to the last detail on the bodywork?

 

Check out the other thread. MB is revealing their upgrades over the course of testing. THe sidepods are much thinner at the back, slightly longer, the car has real turning vanes at the sidepods now, and exhaust is a cross between Renault and what Red Bull has and is quite effective, and for today they have only installed new barge boards and turning vanes under the nose. The MB is changing more than any car on the grid, and Nico likes it. The new wings are reportedly either later today or tomorrow.

The 1.22.9 Schu set was on HARD tires with a lot of fuel on board according to Haug. The MB is no slug

 

Yeah I heard that. First they said after lunch today and now tomorrow.

 

http://www.f1reader.com/news/mercedes-update-will-hit-target-11250#


Schu with some really strong words in here. Essentially all the updates are going exactly how they expected and the wings, brake ducts, and barge boards will arrive tonight and be tested tomorrow.

Schu stated the team to beat of course is Red Bull, but the more surprising and almost overconfident statement was:

(when asked about MB's early season rivals)
"Red Bull has clearly gone into this year in quite a strong position and that is who I anticipate will be our reference point in the early point of the season – that is who we have to beat to win races. So that is my judgement, but I don't think it is unachievable and things change quite quickly in F1."



I am seeing this one of two ways. They are anticipating on dicing at the front with Red Bull, or they are simply saying Red Bull because they know they are the fastest and that is the team everyone needs to beat which is sort of a blanket statement and not being too presumptuous. The latter is probably correct as he also said:

"At the moment I guess we're not quite in this position (against Red Bull direclty), but I wasn't expecting to be in this position right now. The season is long and there is a big question mark as to who is coming behind, and I hope we play a sufficient role in that."

 

MB obviously in a much stronger position now, but they remain humble and pretty quiet about things. They are planning an incredibly aggressive update program. Talk about an axe to grind. They are really going nuts here.

Haug gave an interview yesterday and stated some very aggressive updated each race are coming and they are hoping on gaining a tenth each race weekend.

Schumi sagt nach dem letzten Test in Barcelona sichtlich erleichtert: "Fakt ist: Uns ernst zu nehmen, ist nicht allzu verkehrt. Meine Zeit (1:21,268 Minuten; d.Red.) war ja schon mal nicht schlecht.“

&

Mercedes wäre nicht abgeneigt, den Vertrag mit dem Rekordchampion (bis 2012) zu verlängern. „Wenn Michael will und wir uns über einen schwäbischen Preis einigen können – sehr gerne“, gab Mercedes-Motorsport-Chef Norbert Haug im Interview-Chat bei BILD.de zu.

translated:
After the last test in Barcelona, Schumi, visibly relieved, said :" Fact is : it's not wrong to take us seriously. My lap time wasn't bad."

Mercedes wouldn't say no to a contract extension. "If Michael wants and we agree on a good deal (i.e. less money)- very gladly " said NH in Bild chat.

 

It's no doubt impressive any way you slice it. At last year's Spanish GP Schu qualified 6th on a lap slower than the one the W02 set the other day, and he did that with 5 laps of fuel on board with the God awful Pirelli tires which add a second to everyone's lap regardless. W02 has less rear downforce (due to DDD gone of course) and weighs more. Granted KERS and the moveable rear wing help things out but the rear downforce issue is going to cause everyone to be at least a second off their pace from last year not even mentioning the way slow Pirelli tires.

FYI, Webber's Spanish GP pole lap last year was 1:19.995. I will be amazed if anyone is within .8 seconds of that time this year.

 

You're right. Their design methodology is backwards to what Mclaren is doing (Mcl is the longest car). One side says a shorter car can take better advantage of a the small diffusers and small rear wings currently employed, while the other school of thought is that a longer car can package a car best and has more surface area to make up for not being able to take advantage of a smaller diffuser as well.

I'm no engineer but both methods are working I guess. The MB is much smaller than almost everyone else. The difference to the Mclaren is something like 40 centimeters.


Phenom, interesting you mention MB being competitive at Monaco and Spa etc.
The thing is, MB is not only the shortest car but it also has the highest top speed. So who knows, maybe it will favor Monza.

 

I read that article the other day. It's interesting how they remain quietly confident yet humble and realistic.