By Timba7
November 14 2012

Last 2 races of season ahead. US Austin race is important for the entire F1 show. It is really interesting to see how the tires work at new and probably rough tarmac. MercedesAMG season 2012 has been ups and downs. One win and few great drives by both Nico and MS has been the highlights. But there is many open questions about why development sometimes goes to wrong direction. Maybe this Autosport article gives us few answers, clearly the aim is 2013. Here is the link to the Autosport news about the matter:  http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104163  And you can also read some of the article here:

"Haug said the need to fully master these developments, plus efforts to upgrade Mercedes' windtunnel programme, meant the behind-the-scenes progress was not yet being reflected on-track.

"We certainly do not get the full benefit of this Coanda technique currently," he said when asked about Mercedes' issues by AUTOSPORT.

"You cannot get that after two or three races. You have quite a high price to pay in terms of fuel load and horsepower and so on, and I think you have to compensate, and I think that is not quite happening.

"But there is no other way to find a solution than to explore it.

"We have had, and this is not an excuse, a period of one-and-a-half to two months where we changed from 50 to 60 per cent [windtunnel] models.

"You need to do that to prepare for the future."

Haug insisted that now Mercedes had proved it was capable of winning grands prix, there was no reason to doubt that it would be back at the front of the field once its current problems were resolved.

"We did not get a win as a present," he said.

"The [Shanghai] track suited the car, but it was still one of the most dominant wins - it was by 20 seconds and it could have been a one-two," he said.

"We were certainly fast in Monaco, we were certainly fast in Montreal. There have been probably a handful of races where we looked pretty competitive.

"But it's right to say that since the summer break we are not where we want to be, and there are reasons for that.

"One is that we need to explore the Coanda exhaust. This is certainly not giving us the full benefit currently in my judgement. On the other hand, we need to do this windtunnel programme for sure.

"If people criticise us, then we fully accept it, but we have been there [at the front] half a year ago, winning a race not by luck, and we're working very hard to get there again in half a year's time.

"This is our programme and this is what we want to achieve."

Mercedes "the roller coaster of development"

Discussion started by TotalMercedesGP.com - Mercedes GP New (IP Logged), 14/11/2012 13:26

TotalMercedesGP.com - Mercedes GP New
14/11/2012 13:26

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Herman Munster
14/11/2012 14:50

It amazing how he can put such a positive spin on what really was a disasterous year.

Lets be honest, in the first half of the season no-one, yes, no-one, no team, nobody really understood the tyres and how to make them work. Every team that had a "one off" success did it by pure chance that they had set the car up right and "brought the tyres in" correctly. This wasn't done scientifically, it was a shot in the dark, thats why there were so many different winners.

---------------------------------------------------
Well done Lewis. New driver, new era.

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Timba7
14/11/2012 18:47

Herman you have valid points.

My view...Tire problems were different than 2011. They struggled to get the tires to heat. And next race they failed to last long enough. Someone in the development team made choice which cost the last part of the season. They should have thought thrue the win. And learn from it. But Mercedes failed in that and if that wasnt enough... they got it more wrong in every last GPs.. which was painful to watch.

But who knows. Maybe we finally get it right for 2013. But i wont ride the hype. So results should do the talking next year.. Nevertheless its going to be interesting with Hammi on board. And hopefully better/learned team around him and Nico.

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turboturtle
14/11/2012 23:45

"This wasn't done scientifically, it was a shot in the dark"

that's a bit of a hyperbole...

regards tt

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K1
15/11/2012 04:18

there is an old, somewhat scatological, ref which seems to be a perfect fit for this topic and ross brawns explanation. it deals with the fact that until now it hasn’t been possible to polish ‘faeces’. RB has proved that to be wrong.

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Timba7
15/11/2012 07:00

@ TT
That is funny. Shot in the dark..

@K1
So true!

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Herman Munster
16/11/2012 09:09

A "shot in the dark" is a well known phrase to describe something which is guesswork. Yes, its a hyperbole, but then again I suppose so is a "Roller Coaster of developement".

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