Mercedes GP upgrades are in place and performing as expected.
The question is what teams
will have taken the most advantage of the extra pre-season time brought on by
the Bahrain GP delay ?
Early odds on are riding with
Red Bull and Ferrari to lead the field.
As the teams prepare for the
2011 season the pundit’s continue to play down the test times, but in the same
sentence they refer to the Bulls and Ferrari’s as the teams to beat because of
their test times.
Meanwhile Mercedes is gearing
up. Nick Fry insists his team is not panicking with its lack of pace. Ross
Brawn has revealed the car is about a second off and has been struggling with
overheating, but remains optimistic.
Mercedes has a new aero
package and feels that upgrade along with others will remedy current problems
and are confident the pace will increase.
Mercedes started the 2011
season with a basic car intentionally and are adding significant upgrades as
the cars dependability progresses. They also realize the delay of the Bahrain
GP has given all the teams extra time to prepare as well, but are comfortable
with their critical path.
Fry has played down seven
time champion Michael Schumacher was frustrated with the cars teething
problems.
Michael understands the
situation and his feedback is fantastic, his input is helping the development
of the car. ”We are all hoping the proof will be in the pudding in Australia.”
As it’s turning out the
confidence in the upgrades is much more than just optimistic hope. The new parts arrived for the W02 late
Thursday night and were installed in time for Michael to climb to the top of
the Friday’s test times turning in a 1:21.249 edging out Fernando Alonso’s
Ferrari time of 1:21.614.
This is an encouraging boost
as the season opener grows closer to reality.
With Schumacher’s team mate Nico Rosberg in third, it was a good day all round for Mercedes GP. Schumacher completed the majority of the team's programme as they added further new aerodynamic parts to their upgrade package, with Rosberg taking over for the final hour of the day.
The car is improving and they even let Nico have a go in the final hour on Friday so that's good.
Nico topped the time sheets on Saturday, it was wet judging by the times.
[quote In The Pits][quote]
Nico topped the time sheets on Saturday, it was wet judging by the times.[/quote]
Yes he was the fastest of a whole 3 cars (himself included) yay! ">Winning! (clicky)
hahaha & my EXACT point (where I said you would respond completly differently if NR was at the top of the sheets instesad of MS in the testing thread) is proven..
On a serious note, good to see BOTH drivers enjoying an apparantely much improved car over the final days of testing. & no pits that didn't even hurt to say, maybe you should give it a go!
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:13:06:13:04 by DownUnderThunder.
Too bad,that Nico wasn´t given a proper possibility to test the new aero packet. He has shown so good form last season that he have earned to be treated equal with Michael. I feel sorry for him now. Why wasn´t the packet there one day earlier, so he could have tested it properly? Now Michael has the upper hand with W02. Could it be, that the long relationship btwn Ross and Michael is influencing here?
Not to worry Kajo. Nico is right up there, no doubt.
I believe that if the W02 is a winner Nico will make us proud.
MS has past with Ross and the results are in history. No one can take that away. MS has more tools in the development area than most of the drivers, but there is a good reason for that. Does it give him edge?
Does he still have the pace. I believe age is a factor. But i am hoping MS proves me wrong.
Actually Kajo I think you will find that they gave Nico time in the car in the afternoon that MS set his quick time and I believe he set the 3rd fastest time not that i'm reading too much into these times as they were set on Rb's own admittance on low fuel and soft tyres still quicker than the others though
Kajo Too bad,that Nico wasn´t given a proper possibility to test the new aero packet. He has shown so good form last season that he have earned to be treated equal with Michael. I feel sorry for him now. Why wasn´t the packet there one day earlier, so he could have tested it properly? Now Michael has the upper hand with W02. Could it be, that the long relationship btwn Ross and Michael is influencing here?
You noticed that to Kajo. I feared we might see MS having more help than Nico from the team this year, but I hope it's not as one sided as it was at ferrari. After his good work for the team in 2010, Nico deserves equal treatment and I hope he gets it.
---------------------------------------------------
Well done Lewis. New driver, new era.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:14:12:32:12 by Herman Munster.
There's the aspect that maybe Ross and others are pretty confident Nico will adapt quickly as he proved last season and the team has to get the other team member up to snuff for the 2011 campaign as well.
That's not meant as a slam to Michael, but with the limited testing time they (the team honcho's) have to take a calculated decision on who really needs the most time behind the wheel to be ready.
After all a guy in his forties verses a guy in his twenties is a real issue.
Another factor is MS's experience in feedback may and should be more developed.
Well the way things are going I wish I would get slammed, but all the Schumacher side of our posters are running for the woods saying this site is too pro Nico despite efforts by this staff to encourage posting if you are Michael fan.
It really is difficult when people get there noses out of joint over our driver line up.
We got two great ones compared to 70% of the teams.
I just think that there is somewhat a misconception labeling all those who run away as MS fans. I am sure some of those who ran away will ALSO run away if Nico got slammed left and right as people get tired reading negative things blown out of proportion and lose interest. However...people have different opinions and that means there will ALWAYS be somebody unhappy as one can NEVER satisfy everybody and what matters is to try and maintain the balance as moderator and in my opinion you guys are doing a good job and appreciate your efforts.
I also over time came to kind of understand Pits and Herman and will debate where I can...lol Just as I am entitled to my opinion they are entitled to their and thats how I try to look at things. As longs as we all support Mercedes thats what matters as drivers come and go. I am looking forward to this season and cant wait for that first race.
We are all looking forward to the season opener. It's been a long off time.
No problem about not posting. Sorry your work load has been heavy, hopefully that means more money in your pocket.
Thanks...at long last I have more time for myself again...I think..
I can't wait for this weekend...I think we all are very eager to see racing again and to know exactly where all the teams are standing relative to each other as we will find out in a few days. I am very positive however and think we will be right up there this season challenging for the front...lets hope so. Are we going to run a race to race prediction league this year?
Edit
Aaah..just saw they have one up running at Ferrari site...we will probably pop over there for that and see how we fare vs the other guys...lol
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:22:15:30:16 by PharLap.
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