Hello, Michael is back. For a lot of people this is the main reason they are back watching "very closely" F1. Who cares if he is 0,3s before or after Nico? Last 3 years wasn't very trilling for me, but now everything is back. I hope he stay longer in F1. If he is in the first 8 positions, then everything is OK, because they are 4 strong teams. And because MGP is 3 or 4 strong team, he is more normal to be in second fourth of the first 8 positions. And also him fighting with the car doesn't help much. Will see ,but this doesn't change this-Michael is back. And the situation with the teams since 2009 is this: Red Bull staying in the same place( in front), Ferrari make big step forward(passing MGP and McLaren), MGP staying in the same place(3rd) and McLaren making step back going around MGP. Maybe we will fight this year only with McLaren and take some pieces if frontrunners have problems. Or maybe not .

good luck to merc today, esp Schumi.

a top 5 finish for schumi would be a nice accomplishment IMO.

No, he wasn't. He was supposed to be on form after the first few races. Nobody said otherwise.

Rubbish! The perceived wisdom was Schumacher waltzing back into F1, rekindling his partnership with Ross Brawn and showing Barbie, AKA Nico Rosberg, a clean pair of heels. I wont deny that I brought into this scenario, lock, stock and barrel and now like many others, have egg on my face. Even a rusty Schumacher was seen to have too much for Rosberg. For the time being at least we are wrong.

Britney, it's Britney, not Barbie.

It's precisely the sign of a truly great driver, the kind MS once was, to adapt very quickly to anything. MS himself seems to acknowledge it "Just make perfect use of what you have available".

The question is, can he still do it like he used to. Mercedes will no doubt get out of their ways to accomodate the car they have to his style, but there is only so much they can do, technically. The rest has to come from the driver. If MS can't drive the existing car as fast as Rosberg, tough luck.

That would either mean he was always lucky before in his career to find cars that suited him, or that he has lost part of his abilities. I believe it's far more reasonable to assume the latter.

Anyway, early days.

Rosberg u suck officialy

Why? Same goes for Schumacher than. He couldn't challenge either.
The Mercedes car is extremely slow in S2.
They lack downforce seriously. I expected more from the but they're quite far off.
Between 1 and 0.8 second off the leaders pace.
That's massive.

Decent result for Mercedes, there just wasn't more in the car - Vettel was driving faster than anything Rosberg could muster, in the end.

But it's 1 bloody second per lap compared to Ferrari, let's also say Red Bull. Quite a bit behind Mclaren as well.

Also, did they only drive softs? That was my impression, didn't know these rules had changed as well.

Yes, that's the big problem. Melbourne is a shorter circuit, hopefully there won't be so much difference.

Think it was an OK race for Michael after all. Indeed on long stint Rosberg doesn't have a big advantage on him if any at all. Now he just needs to find a way to qualify well.

How's that neck, Michael?

Nick Heidfeld better stay sharp, if The Neck gets worse he may have to substitute.

MGP was slow than Ferrari and Red Bull with soft 1,2-1,6 sec. Don't know about Macca because Hamilton was stuck behind Nico. On harder tire they were 2 sec slower than Ferrari on fastest laps, also from Macca with 0,7 -1,5 sec. If this is not enough they were slower than FI, Renault, Torros, Williams on harder tires with 0,5-0,8sec. Sutil fastest laps was maybe 1 sec, faster than Michael. A lot of lot of work in front of MGP.

You mean they need to change the car first to find 1 sec/lap before they can qualify well.

A lot lot of work to do. The two drivers were very even in the race. Ross said after the race some small things for the car are coming for Melbourne but the bigger step is expected for Malaysia, Shanghai and especially Barcelona. That Ferrari was stunning at the end of the race.

Ok..do you seriously think this is a "witty" or even a original post?

How is your neck?

So Rosberg couldn't get past Vettel for 2 laps and he was at-least 1 second faster. If he cannot pass a car in problems, good luck passing other cars.

I think MS did ok...one place below and less than 4 sec behind on the first race back.Not bad.

I was monitoring the lap times,he is definitely slower than Rosberg but not by much at all.It can only get better from here.

im very pleased with the result, especially with Michael but yeah, they have a lot work to do.

I don't think any update will help them. If it so big like in Bahrain, for sure will not help. Liuzzi and Algersuari was driving faster than them!!! They get in 2:00,3 - 2:00,5 maybe 10-15 laps before MGP get there. I didn't think MGP even get below 2:00. Schumi will be shocked for sure, he expected some quick car from MGP. Rozberg also. And really race was not very thrilling. Not much overtaking. Vettel was fast in his last 2-3 laps(2:00,3 last lap) ,Nico was not so quick

Did you watch the sector times?
The RedBull was massively quicker, compared to the Mercedes, in the twisty S2 sector which requires less power.
There's no way Rosberg could overcome that. Same goes for Schumacher.

Again, I'm not interested in Rosberg bashing. Certainly not in this thread.
Take it to the Rosberg vs Schumacher thread where you can have your day.

yea some retards think it was a bad performance, hes only going to get stronger with each race and we all know its a good track for rosberg.

if rosberg beats schumacher at SPA ill eat my cats

It won't even be that long...doubt if Rosberg will beat MS after Melbourne when they get the new parts for the car.

Stop talking about Rosberg vs Schumacher.

Now Mercedes need to be on pace againts Red Bull and Ferrari, today Mec was at least 1 second slower.

Not that impressive. The car seems solid and quite consistent overall, but just too slow.

This thread is so funny! Thanks guys!

So the car is slow in a straight line (6-7km/h off the Mac) and slow in the twisty stuff. Woops

Terribly slow in the slow sections and little slow on the straight...have to improve.

Guys,

Michael is going to need about 5 races to really be back. That's just a reality of being away from the car for so long.

Prost said that he needed about 3 races to get back on pace in '93 when he came back from just a year off. In his case, he was lucky to drive car miles ahead of the others and get out to a championship lead when he was still rusty.

Then both drivers did a stunning job, don't we think? I mean 5-6th with a car that is slower than Toro Rosso, Williams, def. slower than Webber's and Button's car is basically bringing out the max.

Mercedes was slower than Ferrari and Red Bull (and Mac-Hamilton) by at least 1.5 sec/lap.
There is a lot do in Brackley.
Rosberg is solid but Schumacher must raise the bar. He is not expected to be "also running".

Basically, it doesn't really matter at this point who is faster.. Mercedes is slow. Period.

They need to work together and get the sled going and moving up the grid. This week, Nico was quicker then Michael but miles behind the positions that matter... Not looking sooo good for them to win any races this season with RedBull and Ferrari on form with McLaren neatly packaged and Force India maybe just behind Mercedes and could pose a problem on the track for Nico/Michael.

Yes, drivers did great job. They take the maximum from situation. Lets hope this track was just not good for MGP car.

11 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 45 16:36:32 188.649 2:00.204

13 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 45 16:36:28 188.599 2:00.236

Well, Melbourne is a special track so things could be a little different and chaotic there, that´s my hope.

1 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 45 16:35:49 191.706 1:58.287
2 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 49 16:45:13 189.930 1:59.393
3 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 45 16:36:35 189.781 1:59.487
4 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 42 16:30:07 189.665 1:59.560
5 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 38 16:21:58 189.392 1:59.732
6 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 47 16:40:45 189.233 1:59.833
7 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 39 16:24:39 189.118 1:59.906
8 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 28 16:03:08 189.026 1:59.964
9 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 45 16:36:33 189.017 1:59.970
10 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 41 16:29:17 188.844 2:00.080
11 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 45 16:36:32 188.649 2:00.204
12 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 32 16:09:49 188.627 2:00.218
13 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes Benz GP Ltd 45 16:36:28 188.599 2:00.236
14 11 Robert Kubica Renault 33 16:12:45 188.226 2:00.474
15 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 34 16:16:12 186.789 2:01.401
16 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 27 16:00:46 186.406 2:01.650

I put more laps here for clearer picture. Who is second!!!

It's obviously not only about fastest lap, it's also about consistency.

I wonder how much of an indicator fastest laps are in this new F1? They don't seem to be much. Vettel down on 12th, Webber up on 3rd. Massa's FL being 1.5 slower than Alonso's when in fact they were pretty close until Felipe had to back off. Sutil up on 2nd. Barrichello up on 6th.

Vettel broke down early for fast lap?

Go Michael. But poor Merc

didnt sutil start on hards? as did most of the unusual suspects high on that list so they would have had soft tires on a much lower fuel load

arknor, good point. This is why maybe other behind MGP were faster, softs and low fuel. Different strategy from the first 9 on the start. Thanks. But I am not sure how many started on harder tires? I know only for Sutil.

Mercedes were too slow. Wow I didn't expect it to be that bad. What were the designers doing, even their early development on the car. Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren are easily quicker.

Good race by both drivers, but I have concerns for Michael. Its one thing to close the qualifying gap but its another to claim the 0.2 advantage that he would normally have on his teammates. I don't see that happening this year.

We can pin our hopes on a better car for Barcelona but by then everyone will be taken large steps forward. This weight distribution has hampered development a little.

From James Allen's blog:

Q: James, whats the word about Micheal? Why is he so slow? Whats he struggling with?
James Allen's Reply: Getting the tyres to work at their peak on the single lap. He’s in much better shape on the long runs

i expect him to be much faster at the classic tracks

the car is not fast enough. in sector two they were woeful. hopefully they can work out their issues otherwise the chances of podiums are going to be slim.

Seriously, the Brawn GP was excellent in the beginning of 2009 and from there and then on it went downhill. It still seems to be going downhill in its new guise as MGP - not to be in the top 50 laps of a GP is a mockery for a Silver Arrow.

Let us hope. Yet, with no testing I wonder how they will manage. It hurts quite a bit.

Just judging from today, the car's a real dog.

Ferrari didn't even need to run flat out, I could imagine that, if needed, Alonso could have run a second faster and was just cruising without pressure. Nico, however, was certainly doing all he could to get Vettel.

Under the late-race-circumstances, the Merc is certainly way off the pace, easily 1,5 seconds a lap.

I imagine Schumacher already has some ideas for the engineers. Now he knows what needs to be done so he can make the car suit him. I expect him to be closer to the top from Barcelona on, when they can work out the weight distribution of all that kind of stuff.

But I think 6th place was the best he could do under the circumstances.

all the lap times:
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1_me...ce-analysis.pdf

I'm seriously worried about mercedes pace...

I'm alright with the team going through a bit of a struggle. Rosberg's technical feedback will help to push Mercedes in the right direction. They should be vastly improved when the European circuit begins.