Ross Brawn already said that they will introduce the new car in two steps - one for Valencia, the next one for Bahrain. Given that they are currently running a near 2009-aero-package there should be a lot of potential in the car.

IMO,it's the RBR diffjob that Brawn has been waiting for-once we have the output of Newey's creative energies and lateral thinking,I reckon we should at least be getting a hint of what Mercedes are going to be running by Bahrain.


Basically a renewal of the battle of brains on the sidelines,while McLaren and Ferrari hog the headlines with their shiny new diffusers. At the moment,though,the W01 isn't doing too badly for a year old aero package.

A lot of Honda fans were overjoyed that Ross Brawn agreed to join Honda. Honda had just finished building a full scale wind tunnel and Ross Brawn had a full year to design his first Honda chassis. The lions share of the work had already been done before Honda bailed out of F1. Even Honda fans knew that the engine sucked. We blamed it on the engine freeze. The Mercedes engine was a great pick up. It's very significant that the Honda gearbox tech is still being used by Mercedes GP.


It seems like you are more interested in trying to spin some kind of Ross Brawn/Michael Schumacher dream team fantasy. Schumacher came out of retirement and Mercedes bought Brawn GP. They aren't starting from scratch.

Hah! Nice one Nico.

The only person who "spinned" MS into this is you; nowhere in my previous posts you will find any reference to him. If the gearbox is Honda's legacy, it's fine with me, BTW. How significant it is only you must know, because I do not have any special inside into management of the team.

From the Mirror's Byron Young. Anyone have more details?

byronf1 Two days and two spats. Mercedes PR have fallen out with the media two days on the trot. That's a 100pc record. Still one day left though.

What was the fall-out about?

Edit: or rather, who?. Let me guess: Schumacher.

I am not so sure; both drivers had some ergonomics related concerns, and with the fuel limitations per test it's pretty confusing what are they actually testing and in which time slot. One can only speculate, that speed laps would come perhaps in three legs; full car weight, mid point, and towards the end running on fumes. I am not sure if they even attempted to make those runs, or they just evaluating reliability with possibly some set up configuration. Would be nice to find out, but snadbagging for some inexplicable reasons was always Ferrari's trademark, and we can only hope they still playing that game, because yesterday's times need to improve.

Nico didn't like soft tires, so who knows if the will have trouble to get them quickly to proper temperature.

Nico has completed the first race distance for the new car.

The Honda built wind tunnel is also a big part of the legacy. You mentioned MS in one of your last posts.

http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?show...t&p=4111805

Getting access to him probably. When 3/4s of the planet want to talk to the guy no doubt someone's nose is going to be put out of joint.

I'd guess a fiver that it was the Press putting Barrichello's "get out of there Rosberg" comments to Nico this afternoon.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81217

Ok, tunnel is fine, although I would think it's a tool, not an accomplishment on the track under racing conditions; moreover, under that criterium you can add probably more material resources left at works.

MS in that context was mentioned in relationship to future, rather than a past. Mea culpa for confusion. Actually I have read somewhere just today that even Ross has mentioned that his input is precise and specific (paraphrasing), which helps engineers to tune up the car. Anyway, enough of that. Past is past, and now we are warming up what's coming just in a few weeks.

Burning question will be "how did medical follow up ended up"? I bet there is a lot of "friends" who want to explore it to its full potential.

This will be the cause of the friction:

adamcooperf1 Nico Rosberg wasn't happy when told that Rubens said he should 'Get out of there,' but he dealt with it pretty well. Says he strong enough

from JA blog

Nico Rosberg did 119 laps in the new Mercedes but still complained of not being comfortable in the car. He did several longer runs, but set a best time of 1m 12.899 on the fifth lap of a six lap run.

Is there ever was something Barrichello didn't do, was just shut up and get things done.

Rubens' "he should get out of there" comment was clearly tongue in cheek (he even joked about how the headline writers would run with it- Autosport didn't need much invitation), so I'm not sure what the problem is. Clearly Schumacher is supremley quick, and he also has a very close working relationship with the team prinicple. It's probably not the best environment for Rosberg to flourish.

The 'problem' is that his complaints about his treatment at Ferrari seem to carry over from year to year with no apparent end in sight. Rather than be diplomatic about it and wishing Nico the best, Rubens decided to put his subjective two cents in, which no one really cares about judging from the material I've read. I'd say enough already but I'm waiting for him to hold a 'I told you so' press conference at some point. Don't get me wrong. Rubens is a nice guy and I met him twice in Montreal and he was generous signing things for people but when it comes to Todt, Ross, and Michael, he takes on this bitter alter ego and can't leave the past in the past. I suppose the email telling him everyone else has moved on never quite made it. Strange.

You know when you use tounge in cheek comments? When you are with friends. Not when talking to the british press dogs.

Rubens wanted to whine about how he was forced to be number 2 for 6 years, play the subservient role for 6 years. Ever the bridesmaid, never the bride. "Advising" rosberg is just a different way of saying the same thing again.

So what is Mercedes doing? Still on the way with the 09 front wing and diffusor as the only team at this test I read.
Are those parts not ready yet or do they want to hide it?

they are probably evaluating the new car, with the old wing and diffusor (which were really successful)
Maybe next test, they will introduce new things

I'm a bit worried by the height of the front bulkhead of the new car. They may have gone a little too far for aero gain:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uplo..._20100202-2.jpg

If the driver sits any higher, he will start to block the airbox entry, which will certainly have engine performance implications.

Check out the STR5 for comparison:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uplo..._20100202-3.jpg

Maybe the angle of that picture is a little bit misleading, it doesn't look that bad in this one:
http://www.motorsport-total.com/bilder/201...z1265131249.jpg

Having said that, I was also worried about this yesterday. But then, Schumacher didn't seem to complain about this. It could also be that Rosberg was used to the Williams having particularly good visibility.

Anyway I hope these sort of the details are well thought in advance and some flexibility is built into the seat positioning without ever compromising the air flow to the engine.

I think the driver just need to live with the limited vision. There have been some cars in the past where the nose was higher than the cockpit sides, for example EJ12.

In all fairness, whether Taku could see where he was going on not really didn't make too much difference to him....

Seems like the MGP W01 adopted an exterior steering arm, whereas the 2009 car had it integrated with the upper wishbone.
Is there any significant advantage over the now more common integrated solution which looks better aerodynamically? I've also noticed this in other teams.

Ross Brawn is a designer now? First I've heard of it.

It's just the angle of the shot.

The team know precisely how high the helmet sits relative to the intake. This is all worked out during initial driver fitting in the factory where everything from pedals, seating height, steering etc etc all adjusted. They even use a templates that defines the boundaries that the driver's helmet must not exceed, for both aero and safety regulations

Maybe it's to do with the new nose design and where the steering rack components had to be positioned in the bulkhead

I was thinking just that

Wow, thats very interesting. I always assumed it was a cooling thing.

I assumed that it was because the steering rack is now sitting lower relative to the upper wishbone. I seem to recall a few teams doing this last year as well.

Starting to sound like Mclaren 09

Depending what angle the upper control arm is you may have too much bump steer integrating the steering arm, now given that the steering arm is attached to the rear side of front hub an outside wheel on turn in under compression would turn further towards the direction of the turn. Now the rate of bump steer is linear giving constant suspension movement rates. Bear in mind though the unloaded side may well be turning the other way.

Oh for a further explanation if I lost someone if you move the wheel up and down in relation to the chassis (suspension operation) and the steering arm is not horizontal to its mounting point you exaggerate the relative length of the steering arm either shorter or longer depending on in the wheel is moving up or down in the vertical plane. This is called bump steer and in essence you are producing artificial steering input via the suspensions movement. You can minimise this by keeping the steering arm as horizontal as possible you still get some bump steer but not as severe.

Shouldn't be a huge issue in a race car because of very little articulation but it may be a factor in controlling what they do have.

Ross Brawn coordinates the development of the car just like he did at Ferrari. And he also is responsible for strategic decision on the pit wall.

He doesn't actually design the car, Rory Byrne was the guy who made the cars but Ross Brawn was the guy who coordinated it

After last year's mega-performance and McL/Ferrari's failures,I didn't for a moment believe Brawn were going to be any higher than third quickest on the grid in 2010. With the arrival of Mercedes and the signing of Schumacher and Rosberg,however,I think they stand a good chance of fighting for the title even with a car that isn't a match for the MP 4-25 or the F10.

The only unknown in the equation is Red Bull. If the RBR is quick out of the box,then we'd have a bit of a worry on our hands. Assuming,of course,that the current hierarchy remains unchanged come Bahrain,with a generous dose of pessimism.

Nico Rosberg on Barrichello's comments:



Rosberg did well in pointing out the obvious, good for him. Yes, Ruben's had his moments, but I sincerely believe Ross Brawn when he says that Michael got where he is because of his talents. He wasn't always in such a powerful position. I also agree that Barrichello needs to drop it, as so much has happened since then. I can only imagine when he actually retires.

Very interested to see Michael's times in the morning (east coast USA). Just to see him stay on a consistent "in the ballpark" pace proves a lot, and has me extremely excited for the season to come. If all the top drivers are on their game in good cars I think we are in for one hell of a show.

In the 2009 car it was actually in line with the front leg of the lower wishbone, not the upper wishbone.
With the front bulkhead now raised, and the lower front leg now mounted on a keel, the option has gone.

well at least we have the one constant of every year teams talking or fans hoping for major upgrades before the opening race of the season and have we ever actually seen a major difference - particularly now when then is little testing even allowed. mercedes has started well but will not have the walk away start as they did last year we will just have to get used to the idea.

RB didn't volunteer his opinion. He was answering a question.
While Nico had every right to respond the way he thinks fit, I would have thought a response like"everyone are entitled to an opinion, I am still here so obviously I disagree with RB on that one". That kind of response would have had the same effect and would not have alienated anyone when it is not necessary.

I think that would have shown a higher degree of level headedness; something he is going to need in large doses as he goes head-to-head against MS.

Firstly, I'm led to believe the 2004 Ferrari had this habit of not shooting to the top of pre season testing times. I'm quite sure that there are more examples if one studies it.

Secondly, W01 is still running with a quite obvious 2009 front wing and an APPARENT 2009 diffuser, whereas the other teams, as far as I can work out, are running new wings. I'm not blind to the fact that these teams will get new ones as the testing progresses, but at least they are running wings that are more or less designed to work with the rest of the package, whereas the wing the W01's using is not. There may well be more 2009 bits that we cant see (under the proverbial hood).

Thirdly. Rosberg had difficulty driving the car due to a seating position. This would have undoubtedly have reduced his confidence to push.

Fourthly, I read somewhere that he said the car didn't work at all on the softer compound. Fair enough, that's a problem. But it was only the second day of the first test! They identified a problem. They've got time to fix it and they will. There's nothing wrong or alarming about that. That's what tests are for.

Fifthly, this is not a representative track for gauging performance as there is not a wide enough range of corners.

I didn't include the fuel and tyres babbel because they're very very very cliche. But they still apply.

So you see ladies. Contrary to popular opinion when a car is not at the very top on a testing day, it's NOT the end of the world. Now how about we all take of these dresses and end this little tea party?

A peak inside the team truck:
http://twitpic.com/1153bb

How big is this truck? Any exterior photos?

http://twitpic.com/110xtb

http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?s=&a...t&p=4105517

I feel bad for Nico. He gets to go before Schumi in testing and looses psychologically. Track gets a bit faster, times drop and Schumi comes out looking aces.

could you care the same for Poor Massa aswell??
Unless you are only obsessed with Schumy

if he got to drive the car first it would have been said that he is the 1st driver and pushed nico away from the schedule
if he drives it second the track is better
come on, it's just testing dammit. the real stuff is in the race weekends. not now.