This is becoming embarrassing. Surely Michael can't have lost it so comprehensively? He's becoming irrelevant, which is the very last thing he should ever be. Without all the politicking at Ferrari in 2006, with Montezemolo bringing in Raikkonen behind Michael's back, he would have done another couple of years, won the 2007 and 2008 championships, and retired at 40. Surely this would have been better than grasping at something that now seems beyond him. How much longer can he go on in this situation?

How is a mechanical problem Michael's fault?

Oh, I shouldn't ask: it's obvious you signed up on this board just to troll.

Ouch another j2t (joined to troll) member. Please use your regular account thank you

wow im in utter disbelief what kind of idiot doesnt tighten the wheel nuts properly , schumacher should be ashamed of himself another miserable result he better get down to the nearest hardware shop and buy some locktight.

alonso and massa steaming past the torro rossos so easily showed how schumacher has complete lost any spark he once had his fire is well and truly cold.

no point arguing schumachers cause with common sense on these forums to many people blinded by hatred

What??? which race did you watch??
They both were stuck behind in STRs for almost 12 to 15 laps...until they pitted
And they have one of the Fastest car on the grid.. and moreover on a circuit where its much much easier to overtake than in Melbourne!

Define:sarcasm

I guess you didn't get the point... He was being ironic.

LOL... my bad....

This race we got to see that it was not only Schumacher's problem getting past slower drivers...heck how many laps did Hamilton, Massa and Alonso got stuck behind the slower cars?

They (bar Alonso) were not even hampered by broken cars like MS had last race....

I guess MS haters will be pleased to ignore that or pretend that it did not happen

You forget something:

Fact. MS 41 years old - Nico 25 years old

And since I am guessing you are a Schumy fan, statements like that can only serve to prove the contrary...

I expected MS to use all tricks in the book (including superior driving) to dominate Rosberg.

I was wrong.

It's probably not the best moment to say that, just after MS got a mechanical DNF... but it now looks like Rosberg is just as good as this 'new' Schumacher, and maybe better.

still waiting to see schumachers true pace on a race day in clear air something which nico has been lucky to recieve at pretty much every race so far, there is no direct comparrison and yesterdays qualifying cant even compare because other teams had massive unatural gaps between the drivers aswell.

nico imo is doing a solid drive but nothing special every race his cards always fall into place we havent really witnessed him fighting for anything yet

Honestly, the mechanical issue was not his fault at all...What do people expect him to do? push his car to the pit?

Well, considering how superior the Red Bull car is... Rosberg couldn't really do a better job today.

..at least part of the reason we haven't seen much fighting from him is that the people behind aren't close enough to get in front.

Gotta give credit where it is due..

What are you confused about? I was giving my impressions about what happened since the season started, up until MS' car failed.. I don't expect anyone to push his dead car around.

Niko was on his own all race!

Let me ask you something mate.

What you want from Rosberg? He is not driving a Red Bull, Ferrari or McLaren; he is driving the slower car of the BIG FOUR, and still delivers to Mercedes GP.
Did you notice that Rosberg is just four points behind the leader by driving a car that his pretty far from winning races?

He is doing excellent by driving smart and bringing points to Mercedes all season, isn’t special for you? OK that’s your opinion but I won’t agree with you on that.

If you want more front Rosberg just call Ross Brawn and tell him that you can do a better job and take his place

The point I tried to make, is that I no longer expect MS to suddenly become dominant compared to Rosberg, which is what I expected to happen before the season began.

I've seen enough to conclude that Rosberg is more than a match for MS, and I can't see how this would suddenly change.

Doesn't mean MS wont have his moments, but generally speaking he won't make Rosberg his b*tch by the looks of it..

hes been able to capitalise on mechanical failures , bad calls from mclaren and ferrari etc.

on race days hes always been ready to pick up the peices which is great but we have seen no special drives from him so far and no real fighting for position or aggressive driving..

obviously a good chunk is due to his good qualifying performances so he deserves a pat on the back for that but on race day you have to admit alot of stuff has just happened for him

This

That's because the car isn't special.

4 points behind WDC leader, which is 2 pts in old money.

If that was Schumacher, people would be spraying cum everywhere saying look what he can do with an inferior car

some people might but not the realists.

so far nico is doing good nothing special but a solid drive.
schumacher has been a bit "meh" but i dont believe hes really had the opertunity to show wether hes still got it or not yet.

he still needs some clear air on a race day for us to see what he can do compared to nico, hopefully next race they both get clear air and we can judge the pace of them both under almost identicle track conditions.

alonso and massa beeing stuck behind torro rossos for so long showed what i said all along, over taking cant happen unless you have a speed advantage on the straights, everyone said i was speaking BS after the ferraris following torro rosso cars for 15 laps do you still blame schumacher for not beeing able to get past jaime?

schumacher took jaime on the track twice, the ferrari which is a better car had to do it in the pits again they were lucky they didnt have to follow them for almost 30 laps like schumacher did in aus

Agree with you..
Congrats to Nico. First Podium for our Team.
Thats one Achievement.
but please stop this nonsence battle Robert versus Schumi...its a direct fight that hasnt started yet. on race trim we havent experienced this or have we?
Nico is doing okay.. getting points but you all knows that this podium its just caused by the qauly havocs from previous day.
I dont think we could see a real Success with nico until now.
when first win ( of course without havocs qualy results and just fighting on track ALA ALONSO, HAMILTON , MASSA ) when he starts to doing in that way i will giving the credit must of you are waving towards him. to Please.. Please Please....Stop this Schumi fights.
lets pray for both cars to finish each race. to get point from others.. and maybe get the third place at teams standing.
Money its something our team will need as if things keeps like this. merecedes ( the corporate ) is going to start pushing too mutch and remenber Honda, BMW, and Toyota.
without those points our team would be in danger to keep going.

SO Nico gets a Podium. Nice
If Michael could gets a four place and so on.. things will get better and if destiny give us the oportunity to withness a real dog fight bettween Nico and Schumi ( on Track ) lets enjoy and pray for this to happens.
So lets get facts together and dont see just what you desire to see.

regards

Alex C

Any news on how did the wheel nut come loose? What an odd failure (specially before any pitstops).

The nuts have a locking mechanism and are double checked before the start, I can only think of structural failure due to bad quality control.

question... are those "mini deckers" on the rear wheel axel legal? i.e. that thing fixed on the right of the brake drumm/disc?

i though aero devices could not be fixed onto the wheel suspension....

am not an expert... just wondering about when williams (newey) once connected elements of the rear wing onto the suspension arms...which was then ruled illegal

I'm not an expert either, but if it was Newey at Williams, it was about 13 years ago... rules changed quite a lot since then.

No, in fact. I have the greatest admiration for Schumacher and his astonishing achievements: I just can't bear to see his reputation being sullied in the way it currently is. I hope I'm wrong and that he does recover the magic, and I can't quite see where or why it's gone. But, come on, when was the last time that he was outqualified and outraced by a team mate in three consecutive Grand Prix? I believe the answer is never. I wait hopefully for China...

outqualifyied by Rubens in 2003 (Great Britain - Germany - Hungary) and 2004/2005 (Brazil - Australia - Malaysia)

Yes, but I asked when he was outqualified AND outraced - not just outqualified.

Does anyone know if the Mercedes is still oversteer or understeer? I recall at Round 1 they concluded the car was one of the other which suited Nico but not Michael. Have they made it more neutral yet or is that a Barcelona type change?

It's understeering. Schumacher famously likes a "pointy" car with plenty of oversteer - and from that point of view this car doesn't suit him at all. I think he's struggling with the narrow front tyres, too, which are compounding the problems with understeer. As someone pointed out elsewhere, Schumacher has had precisely no input into this car or any of the features of the current generation of F1 machinery - not a situation he has been in for very many years.

Absolutely. He has to start taking matters into his own hands, change his own tyres.

So is there any chance they can throw the car back into oversteer this season or is it a case of having to wait until next years car and have more input into the design process?

Any news in the German papers about development?

It's an understeer car now. But we don't need to worry about the development direction of the car. Because our drivers seem prefer the same style car.
This is part of Nico's Q&A a few days ago.

NR: For sure, yeah, we are driving the same car. There is a lot of understeer in some places. It is not the only problem we have, it is one of the issues and I am someone who is not able to drive very well with understeer so there is a lot of progress for both of us if the car starts to understeer less. We are trying to address that.

yea but look at all of rosbergs qoutes they are all mind games even brundle said they are

Rather than waffle on about Rosberg and Schumacher this thread is about Mercedes GP.

It was pretty obvious that Mercedes was lucky to get a podium @ Malaysia.

From what i could see Ferrari and Mclaren had better speed.

Kubica/Renault was hanging on the back of Rosberg as well.

FP3 was a better indicator of sheer speed when they did their qualifying sims

1 M. Webber Red Bull 1:33.542 17

2 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:33.559 14

3 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:33.587 17

4 F. Alonso Ferrari 1:33.751 19

5 M. Schumacher Mercedes Grand Prix 1:33.992 15

6 N. Rosberg Mercedes Grand Prix 1:34.090 13

You actually destroy Schumie's case by decrying Rosberg's efforts. The only way Michael's performance is good is MB01 is a very ordinary car, possibly as slow as 5th/6th. I would say the Renault is somewhere near and the India cars are quite close if not as well managed. To me this says Rosberg is maximising what he has, the car has zero ability to get close and make a pass - this is product of car's aero, not driver's lack of adventure. Also the car seems to lack traction especially off the line. Last year Rosberg was THE strtline expert, this year he is struggling for a start.

I think you are reading the results to suit your own "desire to see". Both drivers are strangely upbeat about the car which to me indicates they are confident they know there's something coming which will unlock the potential. The car looks very ordinary to me so I am hoping for much more.

Congrats for Nico getting the podium but these string of events for the first 3 Grand Prix are depressing for me in regards to Schumi..

Oh well .. Heres hoping for China.

Welcome to the Boards JimmyStew!
Relax. MS will be fine, its been THREE YEARS and its going to take a little time, especially with the limited testing, something MS always did a lot of. Nico is fast and MS is holding his own, I look for him to move up as the car comes around to suit his style a little better and he gets some more seat time. Big thing is that Mercedes needs to bring some updates.

As for his reputation, no one will probably ever top his achievements in F1.

Thank you J2NH. I hope you're right. In particular I want to see Schumacher and Hamilton both on top form in good cars fighting each other on equal terms. A dream perhaps, but what a great one to have. I'm old enough to regret that we never really saw Schumacher and Senna fighting with each at the top of his respective game. How would the second half of the 90s have looked then? Enough material for a whole new thread there. And that's not intended as a provocation to start a pointless "who was better?" debate; each was a supremely great driver in his own way. The pleasure would have been to savour a clash between two drivers each of whom had an unearthly gift. Likewise with Schumacher and Hamilton now.

As I read a quote in bild, they can't build a new car, but they can work on the car in the aero tunnel, if these new front tyres which are narrower encourage understeer, then Schumi and Mercedes have work to do to find a solution in these current rules. With f1 changing rules almost every year, it's possibly these tyre rules won't even be the same next year with michelin if they come in, so that's a headach for research and development. I think Michael must be doing well to compensate with this car with no major testing yet.

Nico has had everything fall into his lap so far, schumacher the complete opposite. Lets wait for the wheel to turn, and lets see who is where...

Haug about Barcelona: "There will be an extensive technical package for the car, and the data looks good"
"We have to do 2 steps there, as others come up with upgrades too"

michael's starts seem to be quite good, even great...
there is nothing wrong with traction from the 0km/h.

We have heard this before. I rather wait what Michael thinks about it. I cannot resist to repeat myself, but I think he will be thorn in the side of many in second half of the season. Signs were, that he was coming back strong in Australia already. If they give him a car on the par with top two, then I feel he will finish strong this year, and win one more WDC before he retires in three years.

Theres a post on Planet-f1 that says if they are not winning by June they will abandon this season and start building for 2011.

Just a thought passed in my mind - Merc current performance is like their livery - not bad, but not standing against the rest.
A black car with silver elements is passing in front of my eyes.
It's OT, so don't beat me much.

I hope this problem with the wheel nut didn't cause any problem to the engine. I don't know which engine(new or old one) he run, but positive here is he have one engine with less mileage now.