First impressions:

Livery - bit dull. Kinda what most predicted. Definitely not an instant classic but not ugly by any means. I do like the brushed finish they have tried to achieve but the faded black makes it look wishy-washy. The sharpness of the Brawn black detailing graphics were more purposeful.

Car - Is this the final 2010 MGP car? The aero detailing in the nose, front wing, side pods all look identical to the BGP001 at first glance. If it was the BGP001 with just a different livery I would well believe it. Are they working on a different 2010 car and just using the BGP001 to launch the livery?

Drivers - If Rosberg isnt roughly matching or beating Schumi on points or performance after 3 races his career is OVER.

clip , nick fry explaining the new car's livery concept .. interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSJgfzqktNo

the car we've seen is the 2009 Brawn with Mercedes' 2010 livery.

Well, we don't know if it was a British journalist. I remember similar a**hole questions from a French journo to Hamilton in 2007, so it's not just the British.

On photos I've seen so far, the car livery looks terrible. I mean it's bad.

But in this video, I find it quite alright. Could this be that it actualy looks good on TV?

Michael and Nico talk about the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Team

note. Still not too sure about the mix of green and red. Numbers should have been green Petronas IMO.

I don't understand this livery at all...
all that color blending/fading is not going to display well at all on televison...it's going to look dirty, as if is perenially covered in race grime...

Should have gone a higher contrast route...

Eurgh, what have they done, it's so BORING. I mean could it be any greyer, it's not silver it looks grey, like if Lufthansa made F1 cars.

I expected better tbh.

form it is boring, has no AMG, so worth a shit. But whatever, at least with schumis red helmet it will be easy to spot on TV.

Interesting marketing mumbo jumbo from the graphic designers sales pitch. Result- a poor paint scheme.

This is true. But neither did BMW use M badges on the driver's clothes before their car was launched as we saw on Nico's shirt (see image of him kneeling next to a C-class or CLC or whatever) and Micheal's jacket (interview with him after he completed the GP2 test).

...And there's a link to the SLS AMG Gullwing hotsite at the Mercedes GP website.

In what way is AMG connected to the Mercedes F1 car?
I mean if we compair to BMW M, whom did build the BMW F1 engines.

In no way.
Thing is, Mercedes is keeping a thin connection with AMG brand in order to promote the SLS AMG against the McLaren MP4-12C.

Nick Fry pretty much confirmed my hunch in the interview posted above. I should have worked in marketing - I'm both creative and an arsehole.

I thought so!
I think they do better with their F1 car against McLaren´s F1 than their road vs McLarens..

Car looks quite bad. Only good part of the launch was the journalist was independent(against schumacher's wishes), and asked him about his past.

yeah that sure brought a lot

I had that impression as well but I didn't expect a radical car from them anyway. Besides, IF they did find a revolutionairy thing, it would be foolish to show it on the car right now to let other teams steal it, so from there, totaly understand it. It's more the livery they presented here.

I do not think we will see changes in the nose, sidepods or back of the car, but front- and backwing, sideboards, for sure yeah.

I think it's stupid. It's like going to someones birthday party and asking how they ever got such ugly teeth.

I think this will be common, mc laren already confirmed the same upgrade. last year some changes were clearly visible, especially toyotas front wings AFAIR were totaly different in melbourne.

Well they said "mistakes" when they could have said "cheats" or something much more hostile. It was an opportunity for Michael to say something postive if he'd wanted, acknowledge his bad past and set sail for redemption this time round. That's what he was being offered. But he's never admitted anything, never apologised, and didn't want to do that now.

So those episodes will always linger. He only regrets the ones that didn't work. I don't see why everyone else is supposed to pretend he never did them or not mention them. Michael Schumacher starting again, being presented, it's the elephant in the room; congrats to the journos who dared to raise it.

Great post

he couldnt said cheats. If he had then would be done... Wouldnt get anything answered from at least merc team. So mistakes was the worst accepted word he could use.

No it's exactly like Michael said in the anwser, people always look at a couple of incidents instead of looking at the whole picture and that is 91 victory's and 7 WDC title's.

And it's the way they put it. Come on if you say: "Is this return an way to show that you can win in the right way?" then you can't be taken seriously. The one who asked the question basicly says Michael never won in "the right way" which is total BS, so how can you congratulate such a dumb interviewer.

what i found disturbing, was the journalists generalization, as if all schumachers career wins was tainted. Yes he was involved in many controversial incidents, and i used to despise him a lot.
But at the same time, i couldnt help feel intrigued by his winning mentality, which was one or two levels above anyone he ever fought with.

until now.

There are quite a few alternatives...tricks, artifice, chicanery, cons, deceits, deception, dirty trick, dodges, fast ones, frauds, hanky-panky, rip-off, stunt, swindle, trickery, wrongs,....

There's no such thing as a question that's too dirty.

Schumacher's a big boy, and he dealt with it well.

The Times ahve written a piece on the tetchy exchange.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/for...icle7001899.ece

Thanx for the link.


Now I understand that Nick had his hart put into this pain(t).

Well, the only one i see has some of the same insticts is Hamilton, and maybe alonso. The rest are good drivers. But dont have the same killer instict.
I just hope schumacher havent lost his. Because if he still has, there is sure to be some good fights in this forum during the season. Just hope the new appointed
Fia stewarts arent pussies as the old ones.

I agree, I just didn't think the question was meant to apply to all his results, it was a language thing I felt. And yes there is a lot to admire, off track and on. He overrates wining IMO, confuses it with being the best.

I was thinking what an opportunity it was, can you imagine....Michael Schumacher repents, no more Mr Bad Guy

It would have been fantastic.

That is exactly why Michael will be remembered as being a tainted genius. Master driver, genius, possibly the best ever. Still tainted, precisely because he still felt the need to cheat, even though his talent meant he didn't need to. Let's face it, if he didn't cheat, he would still be 7 time WDC, who knows maybe even 8 times if he didn't park his car at Monaco 2006?

In 1994, he racked up his first WDC by ramming Hill. You could say that if he didn't cheat, he wouldn't have won that, but that isn't true. The only reason that Hill was able to get near him in the WDC was because he was DQ'd for several races for cheating.

All in all, nobody can dispute the fact that he is if not the best ever, then among a handful of the best ever.

Equally, nobody can dispute the fact that he is a cheat. This is why he is a tainted genius, and it is a shame that such a talent felt the need to cheat as he did.

For me this is possibly one of the most interesting things about this season. The rules of engagement between Schu, Hamilton and Alonso. If they all have half decent cars, that will be one hell of a battle. And maybe it won't be quite as one sided as it has been before.

Agree 100% with your sentiments here. I've said pretty much the same thing in the "Brawn to decide Mercedes driver hierarchy" thread. A genius he is, but definitely a flawed one.

As I thought, the 'Journalist' responsible for those questions was Jonathon McEvoy from the Daily Mail.

No surprise there really.

Yep, a flawed genius, just like Senna was.

Still, I can't say I've ever looked forward to a Michael Schumacher win as much as I am now.

I really hope the guy is a force.

The question was worth asking.

Even James Allen was speculating about how Keke's terrible relationship with Schumacher and criticism of him might influence things between Michael and Nico.

This was from two days ago, though as you point out it was the British media that went after him not the Germans.

Mind you, the Germans might have asked too for all we know.

Rosberg says that he has yet to speak to his new team mate, some four weeks after Schumacher was announced and that the last time they spoke was in 2006. The pair are not scheduled to meet until they are unveiled together on Monday at the official Mercedes launch in Stuttgart.

Although Nico has a sure footed PR touch here, no doubt the German media will be working on digging up the many uncomplimentary things Nico’s father Keke has said about Schumacher over the years. He has been one of his harshest critics.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2010/01/rosb...nst-schumacher/

Mmmm, yeah right, same old tune playing once more... I can´t belive that I hear the same drivel 2010 as I heard back in the 1990´s when I began visiting this forum, unbelievable

Mmm, Tue but there are so many Michael Schumacher fans and that tells how 'we' are actually than who he is...


Besides reading the article I am wondering if Nico has placed himself in a position of no.2 or is he thinking what is reality for him. I assume we will know only at Bahrain.... But that funny curves there, will it help the two racing harder? Not too sure about this.

I didn't think it was an unreasonable question (or exchange) in itself. But I did think it was the wrong time to ask it. This was Mercedes GP livery launch, there's no need to 'rain on their parade', it's only going to stir ill-will. I think the time to ask such questions would be at a one-to-one interview or at the official FIA press conference.

Its not really. Its just a lot of fair minded racing fans think he cheated too often without coming clean to be considered as pure a character as his records suggest.

But we digress! Let people have their oppinions and get on with talking about the team.

These are professional sports teams dealing with professional journalists.

Each are at the launch for their own reasons.

Mercedes, to get lots of publicity for their new team, and ulimately sell more Mercedes cars.

The Daily Mail, to work up the best possible story, and sell as many papers as possible.

It was a fair question, fairly asked, and totally batted away by Schumacher.

No harm done.

I'd be more worried if the Press thought twice about asking such stuff.

Yeah, agreed. Why shouldn't he ask, if he thought it was a valid question?

Exactly.

Journalists who are afraid to ask the hard questions for fear of upsetting their hero aren't journalists, they're fans.

Ah yes another thread derailed by Schumacher.

I was expecting a return to something that resembled their touring cars and sportscars of the late 90s with the D2 and Warsteiner logos. That livery doesn't look very iconic... for a silver arrows anyway.

Just watched the clip of the presentation on the BBC.
Rosberg certainly didn't seem overjoyed.
He didn't even look at his team-mate in his efforts to avoid eye-contact.

Significant, I think, that MS was happily wearing his hat with number 3.
... And Rosberg wasn't wearing the hat with number 4.

No way is he a new Rubens.



The livery?
Predictable overall colour. Surprising perhaps is the way that the tree-pointed star should be so muted.
But its an artistic triumph compared to the hubcaps on last year's Brawn.

The black paint splashed on the nose and "flowing" backwards is a throwback to the 90s, there is no need for it IMO, as hardly there's need for any shades of grey applied to the silver. Simple bright silver would have been perfect - F1 Ferraris never had multiple shades of red: http://www.teamspeed.com/forums/pit-stop/3...ic-old-new.html .
Classic Merc livery:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8mobili/31731...in/photostream/

Why not:
http://www.classicrallies.com/img/pictures/7047_mid.jpg


Simple, Merc through and through and totally badass with the black rims.