Conditions can change in Bahrain, only six cars might cross the finish line, and someone from back of the grid can win. How can anyone say today who will win, yet I trust that Schumacher has enough experience to feel how their car compares to others. If he says we aren't ahead, that's good enough for me, regardless what anyone else wants him to say to the contrary.


___________

He has not critiqued his team, which is good, but fact remains that language should be guarded.

I am talking for this picture 00003162-411 from this site: http://www.wri2.net/arimages.aspx . There I see the flow vis? There is a lot of green paint?

This is both hillarious and sad. Do they have some sponsors that need some extra 'persuasion' before the season starts?

You mean this pic??
thats just the torquise color of Petronas

Yeah, I don't like this kind of approach.




In fact I had thoughts about making a similar joke some time ago. The Petronas turquoise resembles the flow-viz paint so much.

I find it incredible that Mercedes would hastily schedule a press conference just because he said they "probably won't win the first race" (*gasp*)

I said the number of the picture. It is not this picture, can't put link here, can't copy the link. Look for the picture in this site, there is a picture gallery for Barca .
http://www.wri2.net/preview_image.aspx?rep...162&img=411 I think I make it. Just save the picture and see.

No, he was talking about 00003162-411. This one:

And you think that merely just ran off the McLaren? If that were possible, the whole track would be awash with the stuff.

oh, ok....i stand corrected
it does look like flow viz....bu i dont think its from the mclaren.

Probably just hit a Leprechaun.

WTF is going on there?

Mercedes is pushing their drivers to backtrack a harmless statement like that? This is ridiculous.

I doubt michael can be pushed around to make statements.
you're probably looking too much into it, we have no idea what where the exact questions asked.

Rozberg, red flag?

yep

People knew this morning that Schumacher was going make a more positive statement so he certainly got slapped on the wrist.

I find it funny that Merc made him backtrack, on the other hand I was pretty surprised by Michael's negative tone, since after following the testing action of yesterday I thought it was a positive day for Mercedes. At least a lot more positive than some other sessions in the past where Michael made lot more optimistic comments. I thought they were improving and the gap to Ferrari is now smaller than it was at the beginning of the tests. Then Michael comes out with a rather negative, pessimistic comment - so I was confused. Now he said he made that comment without checking all the times (of other teams) of the day and after he checked them it didn't look so bad after all. And today Rosberg's times look good too IMO.

Probably Ferrari are in front but I don't feel the doom and gloom justified regarding Mercedes. I think they are one of the top teams and they have a good potential.

OfficialMGP Small technical gremlin stopped Nico out on track. All fixed and he's heading back out again very soon...

edit: So Nico did the fastest and second fastest time in Barcelona today and the long run pace looked also good

Finally at the top again. Hopefully to repeat tomorrow.

Set-up Mercedes' only issue - Rosberg

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81766

NICO TOPS THE TIMES IN BARCELONA
Posted: Saturday 27 February 2010 at 16:52
Nico Rosberg completed the third day of testing for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today to bring his pre-season testing programme to its conclusion.

Nico spent the morning working on qualifying simulations and developing the car set-up before completing a race simulation exercise in the afternoon. Despite intermittent rain showers in the late morning and early afternoon, Nico was able to complete almost 600kms over 128 laps as he set the fastest time of the day, a 1:20.686, during the driest period this morning.

Michael Schumacher will take over the MGP W01 tomorrow for the fourth and final day of the test.

Nico Rosberg: We had a good day today and made some significant progress in terms of set-up which was nice to see. We hadn't got the most out of the car in terms of performance over the last couple of days, but we made a step in the right direction today. We went through some big changes this morning step by step and found some good improvements. The longer runs this afternoon were interesting. We learnt a lot as there were other cars running similar programmes at the same time so we were able to do some comparisons. There is still plenty of room to improve but overall we are looking in pretty good shape.?br />
ARCHIVE
2010 JANUARY
2009 DECEMBER
2009 NOVEMBER

This two guys a fast,posting news here one minute before it came on official page.
OfficialMGP Thanks for your support today! Engineering debrief going on now with Nico, Michael, Nick and Ross. Nice to see everyone together!

man that site has awesome pictures

They need to close up the radiators. The Mercedes engine doesn't need a lot of cooling and compared to McLaren the sidepod openings are big.

For me MGP sidepods are 4-5 cm, lower that McLaren(their sidepods are on the level with tip of the tires). Where MGP a lower than top of the tire level, also MGP is with shorter wheelbase and this is why, it is not easy to cut the sidepods? But from looking at this picture maybe they have more space below the radiator and to cut sidepots even more: http://blog.autoplus.fr/moncet/wp-content/.../BA1_9479bd.jpg
I am not sure if Rosberg even try the new wing today?

Well, I stand corrected. I was on the side of advocacy for increased global volume of testing, but now when Michael came out that testing time is fine, I have to accept it, even as I am quite suprised by it. Obviously then simulation techniques and reliability maths must have advanced in big leaps.

Well,'morrow's the big day. Hopefully we'll get to see some quick laps from all teams to see how they compare in ultimate pace.


Bahrain's going to be very different,though-much warmer and dusty,so I don't think issues with getting the tyres up to temperature are much of an issue there or some of the other flyaway races. Or perhaps it's the reverse of this that Michael's hinted at.

So,today we get to see Schumi's & Mercedes' true pace,I believe...

a good measure - but if the diffuser and the supposedly "big" aero package nico is talking about debuts in Bahrain , then today pace might not tb the ultimate pace.

Yessir...cant wait to see if he can do some real work.

I am seeing a lot of non-smiling faces at Mercedes... people looking a bit "muted"... while at Mclaren and Ferrari folks look more positive...

Jenson smiling all the time as if he knows he did the right thing... Alonso speaking positively etc.... Haug looking all the time in the distance...

I say this based on looking at body language... not analyzing time sheets etc

Don't know about non-smiling faces ,but MGP drivers a doing the best team work. They are always there(participating in the work), even if they are not driving. Not the same in Ferrari and McLaren and other teams maybe.

interesting you say this, but looking at Haug ive got the exact same impression. In almost all the pre season pics ive seen so far, he looks lets say not very positive. But then again could be other stuff, he is dealing with.

On the other hand. What does give me confidence. By looking at the many pre season pics, Ross and Schumacher is always there. Schumacher with a very serious and concentrated face, Ross with and empty look in his eyes, like his mind is working overtime. I mean empty in a good way. They both seem tremendously focused. There have been more pics were Nico has come into the pits, and it looks like he need go trough a third degree hearing, when schumacher and brawn are standing ready for him. They seem extremely determined.
But this is just judging from the many pre season pics

Mercedes faster than it looked

Don't worry about the new aero stuff only being available in Bahrain guys, teams were trying out new packages last year without any testing days and most of the time it went smoothly. They have 4 hours of practice before Q1 to make sure they have the right set-up for the new diffuser

Posts have been moved. Gentlemen, please take discussions about timings and laps to this thread. Leave this thread for discussing the car and drivers. Thank you.

Schumi is comparing the two wings today. His wife is there watching his progress closely. He have to deliver today.
See today pictures: http://www.wri2.net/arimages.aspx

Assuming that the qualifying runs before lunch were on similar fuel loads, I think things are looking very good for Mercedes.
The reason I'm saying this is that, judging by today's pictures, Mercedes likely ran the car in the 1 February launch aero spec, whilst Ferrari and McLaren ran their cars with Bahrain aero spec introduced at this test.
With 0,3s off Hamilton's benchmark time, there's all to play for when Mercedes run their Bahrain spec aero (which is rumored to bring them 0,6s) in less than 2 weeks time.

True.
The car is much closer in the current spec. to the others (on low fuel) than I thought.
Can´t wait to hear the final word from the team in the evening, maybe we can get some impressions what they think about the relative performance of the cars after those quali simulations.

In the morning Schumi used old wing, after some time he switched to the new one. Which he used in the fast laps we don't know. Maybe we will see fast laps in the end of the test. I don't know if they can match 1,18.926 from Barichelo (from 2009, winter test), but maybe they can make 1,19:5 today.

after that PR disaster I tend to think that Schumacher was lower on fuel than others thus people in Stuttgart could be happy

I still think that qualifying will be more important than ever, because even if on long runs average time is good, but a driver cannot cash it because with overtaking difficulties, than in simple terms a driver who is ahead will dictate lap times, and consequently we might see "Truli trains" quite often. I am yet to figure out race strategy other than "drive like h*** anytime, all the time". My hopes are, that specification changes might permit more safe overtaking on the track than we have seen in past several years.

I don't know. I don't think people in Stuttgart for whom PR is the important thing, closely analyze long runs. I think for them it's more important to see the car on top (or close to the top) on the time sheet. So we could assume he did those 1:20 laps "for PR", but then it wasn't PR either because it was long planned they would do qualy sims today - and also other teams did that.

Plus already before "the PR disaster" I thought Merc's long runs didn't look that bad compared to other top teams', so I was rather surprised by Schumi's negative comment at the end of the day, because I thought it looked good actually.

I don't see Merc or Ross changing their schedule just for PR. I also expect Schumacher to be a bit pessimistic with his quotes to throw others off. It is how I am in competitive situations. Either way, looking at the times we can see that Mercedes is definitely in the mix. With the new upgrade at Bahrain, they may be eyeing podiums.

If you think about what Michael said, I am not sure how much different it is what he said in the past while driving for Ferrari. He never denigrates his team, but remains always realistic what he can do with the car in the race. Maybe Nico R. might be faster initially, but under race conditions a driver with his experience probably has enough instinct to feel what the pecking order is. Besides, imagine should he said "we have a winner". AHWBL in Bahrain after that.

I know that Michael tends to be rather cautious more than optimistic. I don't know what Nico's approach is. I just said to me it doesn't look that bad for Mercedes. I think they don't have the fastest car at the moment, but it's very close between 3-4 teams at the top, which means we could be on the podium at the first race or finish 8th. And let's not forget the updates. Of course, I know there's no guarantee for anything because other teams won't stand still either until Bahrain, plus we don't know yet how good those improvements will be. But I think we are not totally lost and there is hope.

Well put.