Mercedes road cars with Selenia oil?
http://petronas.de/produkte_01_auto_01_motor.htm

I'll believe it when I see it.

I have to say the interviewer who did this was an a**hole: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81054

That's a theoretical possibility as the most reliable engine so far, with Mobil, is the Mercedes. And since the engines don't chnage, this will likely continue.

Consider it this way, engine with petronas lubricants, which was designed aroung Mobil ones goes bang regularly. Engine in McLaren and Force India with Mobil lubricants goes very well.

Would Petronas be happy with that situation?

I think they will no doubt have contracts in place or whatever. But I imagine (hope) that whatever agreement Mercedes have entered into with them, it has performance in mind first and foremost.

Autosport Q and As aren't exclusive.

They're gang bangs with lots of hacks from all over the show.

Autosport just happens to have one of the microphones in the scrum.

This was explained by Bira a while back on another thread.

So hard to pin the shite questions on one journalist.

Very ballsy second question though!

Deflected as ever, with a Schumacher one-worder...

Q. The man sitting next to you's father said after Rascasse '06 that the sport could do without do. How do you feel now driving with the son of the man who described you in that way?

Michael Schumacher: Good.

I'd dare say it is a group Q&A autosport have transcribed and printed. Although those sorts of questions would have certainly had to have come from either Anne Guintini or a member of the British press pack :-)

Would it not suggest a complete lack of faith in the quality of your oil 'partner' that you select a rival product for own team's use. In PR terms that is a huge and damaging own goal.

ouch

Syntium is the premium brand.

One can imagine Schumi's mouth when responding to that one. How did Bishop put it so, err graphically, again? Something about a cat's backside and rictus.

I thought the journo was an a** exactly because of questions like this. He obviously tried to provocate Schumacher. There is a time and a place for everything and this occasion wasn't time for questions like this and to bring up 1 million year old controversies which were already discussed 100 trillion times. Michael handled it well though. He gave this question exactly as much time as it deserved.

In which case they ought to test the petronas products on McLaren's fo108 first... :-)

Petronas only cares about getting their name out there. Rarely is an engine failure attributed to the Lubricants used, though.

I know, personally, many small teams that have various suppliers as their sponsors, however, the teams don't actually use their products, on their vehicles.

I didn't say it was Autosport. I said whoever it was.

Just spotted the model designation of the new car - MGP W01 and not the RB01 or whatever it was that people were suggesting.

BTW, a comment on the Livery: I like it. I think they could have done better, but they didn't do a bad job with it, either!

Hopefully it suits the new car better

Schumacher is the master of the one word reply.

If he doesn't like the question he'll just say "yes" or "no."

Because there are so many hacks wanting to get their own question in Schumacher's one worders just get accepted.

But McLaren run the McLaren team. Not Mercedes. And McLaren are partners with Mobil. But I don't see why it's an issue. BMW (and Sauber before that) did fine with Petronas.

Mobil has been working with Mercedes for years and Petronas can't realistically design bespoke lubricatnts within a couple of months and instantly have the same level of performance. Do you know which lubricants Force india uses? No we don't. We all assume it's Mobil, but no one really knows. So in terms of PR it is only of importance when there is a commercial arrangement.

Yeah, it means, quite plainly, Wagen 01, or Car 01. Can't wait to see the little beauty.

Mercedes signed the deal with Petronas. I'm sure they know what to expect.

A tricky situation to be sure.

It's looking like this Schufosi v Tifosi question wasn't such a hard one for you to answer

I was impressed with that because of course it mirrors the model designation of the legendary Silver Arrows to a small extent. I suppose the only thing they might have done more was to continue the old sequence rather than start from 1.

Re. Livery

Well, if I was Mercedes I wouldn't be happy, their logo on top of those airbrushed black bits looks really rushed and amateurish. Especially given the heritage of the Silver Arrows. The black section should be cleanly demarcated. It's as though someone thought it looked a bit plain in silver and quickly airbrushed on a few stripes!

The length is all wrong

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/5012/0228454q.jpg

I think the green edge on the rim is really strange, that will be really confusing for "normal" viewers when it comes to the green "ring" on the softer tyre....

I like the new paintjob.

Shows you how pretty last year's Brawn might have looked if it hadn't been boring old white with dayglo yellow.

It's a new beginning for die Silberpfeile

As for schufosi vs tifosi, it was never a problem for me I was always clear where my loyalties lie first and foremost. But I will support Ferrari, Massa and Alonso whenever Michael isn't in with a shot.

Also, Michael seems to look about 6 years younger in the past 4 months. If you put Mark Webber, Rubens Barrichello and Jarno Trulli all next to each other, it'd be difficult to pick Michael out as the oldest.

Yeah me too...will Support Ferrari and Massa ONLY whenever Michael isn't in with a shot.

Schumi is not a traitor, but the Schufosi's (who dubbed themselves Tifosi) are

Please never come back again, you'll never be true Ferrari supporters anyway. Using the T-word without meaning it is almost criminal

By the way, I'm not the biggest Schumacher fan, but the journo that asked him some questions http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81054 must be an idiot of the highest rank, some were totally uncalled for.

ok, what ever

Why support Ferrari anyway? Montezemolo destroyed great group of ppl working with passion for the team. He went for blackmailer and put Italians to run the team. Gonna be uber fail there.

LOL.... That Journo could be some of our BB mates .... like 'Frans'

Q & A with Rosberg, Schumacher
By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde

i cannot believe that question were asked by Noble??
or is it by that Pablo guy??

You were saying?


http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3213_5884364,00.html

"Quite a lot of my history and part of my heart is red," admitted Schumacher.

"You can't forget and deny all the good moments together, and I'm really looking forward to seeing some of my friends I was with for so long.

"I'm still in regular contact. Every so often (Ferrari team boss) Stefano (Domenicali) calls me up, and he invited me to the recent skiing week, which is a private thing for the Ferrari family.

Yep, we talked about back here...

http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=4094492

Yep, hands up man, you were right, I was wrong!

Sorry!

Atleast you are man enough to admit when you are wrong, not many guys on this forum can do

Now that I'm used to the livery. The good and the bad. Lets get the bad first:

Definitely not fond of the black bits. The nose and wavey snot lines looks a bit...odd (I can't think of another word). Something a bit more discreet might have looked a bit more in peace with the rest of the design.

The same can be said for black background of the "Mercedes-Benz" on the engine cover (which, for the record, is the worst bit of the livery). That black shadey patch doesn't appear to follow any sort of contour or..well..anything for that matter. It's just there. And the front part (the part nearest to the front of the car) of the boundary of that black patch is smooth and defined, while the rest of the boundary has more of a washed out apearance. It doesn't fit well at all.

So their use of black as an aesthetic measure (as opposed to a functional measure - the writing etc) is a bit helter scelter and without much coordination. But I love the silver! It just screams Mercedes!! My dad had a 300SE many summers ago and I swear its the exact same colour! Gorgeous! The use of turqoise is very discreet and tastefull and I think it goes well with the silver. And I'm in love with the red letters on the white backgrounds! It looks classic. Some criticised the wavey silver detailing on the bodywork. Me? I love it.

All of this is, of course, IMHO. Some like it, some don't. Nothing new.


EDIT:
Where the HELL is AMG?! I was SOOOOO looking forward to seeing it on the car..
I'll be more than happy seeing one (but preferably both) of these baby's chasing down and voilently harassing a macca or ferrari. Bring on Feb1!

It was a group press conference.

So many journalists trying to ask questions.

There were probably dozens of them trying to get a questions in.

Here are some TV guys going at it...

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/2817/lmg76963.jpg

Shumi got his number 3 btw
http://images.gpupdate.net/large/144047.jpg

Some journo's just cant leave the past alone and will dredge up anything, in order to get a response. I believe a 7 times WDC and a 91 GP winner deserved a little more respect than he was shown in that interview. I'm no Schumacher fan, but the constant bringing up of the past, which bares no relevancy to the car launch, is designed to cause nothing except controversy. Another example of p1$$poor journalism.

I can't figure out why Martin W, is there. I am sure he has more important things to do then go to another teams launch? He could of had a valid excuse. But i suppose he is there for mercedes and i would expect norbert etc to be at mclarens launch too.

Still weird to see him there thou. and DC what he hell is he doing there????? unless he is definately going to DTM....

Business as usual,remember all the annoying questions he's been put over the years-almost always at the wrong time and place. And as has been mentioned earlier,MS is the master of the perfect response.



Bring it on,ye haters! He's more than ready for the lot of you!

True, but that was one question of the (probably) dozens Schumacher was asked this morning by various hacks from Germany, Blighty and various other places.

Keke Rosberg was one of the staunchest critics of Schumacher after Monaco qualifying in 2006. IIRC he said Schumacher should retire immediately.

Worth asking, but an old pro like Schumacher was always going to bat it away.

Looking at better-lit pictures of the car, it appears the black bits are throwbacks to the urban legend of Mercedes scraping white paint off of their cars, in this case scraping off the white-silver to reveal "bare" carbon fibre underneath and showing that it's 100% Mercedes under the skin.

Putting up a united front for Mercedes.

Don't forget McLaren have been with Mercedes since 1995, and will continue to use the engine for a few years to come.

The relationship is strong.

Haug and Brawn will be at the McLaren launch too.



DC was there for the BBC.

yes i think the dumb journalist forgot that michael is the master at giving the best response to difficult questions.
the guy has handled more scandels since the the labour party got in power in 1997

Q. In Brazil 2006, you said you were sorry for all the errors you made over the years. Is this return an way to show that you can win in the right way?

MS: Yeah, I'm sure 91 wins and seven titles you only win them in the bad way, absolutely, you are right.

Q. It was the manner in which you won them, now what you won.

MS: Yes, I know, I did mean I won all this in the manner that you were trying to ask questions. Let's be sensible and think the reality and look forward to what we all might face, and learn and enjoy together. That's what I'm looking for.

what kinda stupid question is this??
great answer from him BTW