Due the limitations in wind tunnel usage, Ferrari and McLaren (as others) lost their advantage completely in that regard.

Have they, why then has Ferrari just completed a new wind tunnel project and their boss is so enthuthiastic about it. They may have reductions on the amonunt of time spent in the wind tunnels but a top end stucture will still be able to be extremely productive in producing accurate results much more than the others.

How come the Brawn GP website hasn't changed to the Mercedes GP site?

PS - Isn't that Ferrari wind tunnel still gots ages before its made? It was commissioned but its miles from being built yet. But they do have a brand, state of the art simulator.

even stranger, the mercedesgp.co.uk is dead and mercedesgp.com is just a name place holder.


They could atleast have put up a single page website with a form to sign up for email information on their progress. Poor marketing department.

Just how fast does wind tunnel technology grow every year?

It doesn't really. There may be the odd new technique, but hardly any new technology. The last big advancement in wind tunnel tech was probably the use of lasers for making velocity measurements. There might be a new idea every so often about improving flow conditioning, but that'll just be a minor upgrade. It's very unlikely that anyone will need a brand new tunnel soon, unless their existing one has problems.

I've worked in wartime era wind tunnels and they are perfectly useful today. Of course, now we do everything on computers, so for older tunnels, it's useful to install a six axis digital balance to get your raw data in digital form.

I don't think Ferrari is going to build a new wind tunnel for F1. It has really no sense at all. Their 10+ year old wind tunnel with upgrades over the years is doing everything they need for cutting-edge F1 aero development. These days smart teams are investing a lot into CFD centres to improve capabilites in that area to get as accurate and as fast calculations as possible, eliminate non-optimal ideas, only to test them later in wind tunnel/track to confirm numbers.

I love Wirth's approach and it's really going to be interesting to see how skillful they are in exploiting CFD technology at Virgin. I can see them have more Friday time on track devoted to general development then particular race preparations then any other team with regular wind tunnel tests.

At last a descent looking livery proposal for Mercedes:



This is F1 cartoonist Bruno Mantovani's gem. For more, check out his blog.

James Allen has confirmed that former Ferrari electronics engineer Tad Czapski handed his notice to quit the Renault F1 team before Christmas and is seemingly joining his ol' friends at Mercedes GP for the upcoming 2010 season. He was an unsung part of the Dream Team' at Ferrari ....

Electronics engineer Tad Czapski was with Ross and MS in the Benetton days for those who don't know.

It seems Mercedes GP are leaving no stone unturned for 2010 .....

Don't be surprised if Mercedes and Ross do a bit of sandbanging in the following winter tests only to come out and schock everybody at Bahrain March 14 th ....

What is certain is that Mercedes GP ( Brawn ) will be better prepared at the start of 2010 than it was in 2009. . .

hmmm can't remember the full story but wasn't Tad's computer wizardry, whilst being a big part of the winning Benetton team (with a lot of people giving him a greatest part of the praise for the wins) also slightly (or extemely) dodgy


But I must call False on this

"What is certain is that Mercedes GP ( Brawn ) will be better prepared at the start of 2010 than it was in 2009. . ."


As Brawn was developing entirely the year before, using more wind tunnels and wing tests then anyone else, except for waiting for a engine they was better prepared then anyone else.

He hasn't been at Ferrari for 9 years now. I wonder if there are any more big tech movements this winter with Mercedes split?

Wasn´t it Benetton during the Schumacher-years, who invented the backup for several parts of the electronic...???...so that if something failed, Schumacher (or his pit) could switch...???

It's old news that Czapski has left Renault.
In another thread the rumor he was going to Mercedes was also mentioned.
At Renault he was in charge of vehicle technology (electronics) and the KERS program.
Surely he will be on gardening leave for at least six months, if not a year.

That livery is horrible. Please keep with the silver livery, that was miles better.

News on Michael's race engineer It's Andrew Shovlin.

Well, I guess it was never going to be Jock Clear...

Yeh. I suppose you could argue that Jock knows him well though, hehe.
Could be a nice little rivalry between MS and Nico Rosberg.

Yep, too much green. I've seen much nice suggestions earlier in the thread.

So who said what...?

Only if Rosberg is within half a lap of Michael.

Subtext being that you think MS will dominate over Rosberg?

According to Sportbild the new car will be called "RB1" and Rosberg will be the first driver to test the car.

RB1 as in Red Bull1?

RB stands for Ross Brawn.

But the Red Bull cars' codename is also RB. So it would be strange.

Good to hear they're giving the lad a chance. I hope he doesn't bin the car again though....or was that another Williams driver?

Obviously, but there will be many people who'll think first of Red Bull and then of Ross Brawn, or simply both.
Reb Bull would love the free publicity, I'm sure.

In the days of unlimited testing, getting to drive the car first was a mark of prestige for the driver, if only a small one. With the schedule being what it is though, I can't help thinking that Rosberg is getting a tad screwed: teams typically spend the first day just bedding the car in, checking all systems, etc., without much in a way of performance testing. That's basically one valuable day lost for Rosberg this winter.

I would say the opposite is true, with the limited testing they simply cannot afford to spend a day fart arsing around bedding in the car, that would need to be done on test beds back at the factory and they would have to be on it from the word go. Therefore the first to test the new car is a huge responsibility because that day is going to set the direction of the rest of the test and if the driver sets them off in the wrong direction then that is going to be a huge waste of time and resources the teams can ill afford - get it right first time is what counts now.

Erm...

I thought shakedown is down to checking all systems working. Second part of it would consist of initial driver feedback, telemetry analysis, aero checking to get rough overview of general level of the car. I don't think it's like you write related to direction of tests.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/01/06/bmw-...n-january-31st/



So launch on the 1st of February?

I would prefer the colour scheme Mercedes used in Group C in the latter days, ie dark grey with black. It looked mean, and with the Petronas blue would look fantastic!

byronf1 Mercedes ("we are not Team Germany") have offered the reserve driver role to Nick Heidfeld. That'd make ..errrr. ALL three drivers German

Yeah, but it wasn't planned that way. They didn't go in saying "Okay, we're a German manufacturer, and so we want three German drivers for 2010".

If Bild is to be believed, the presentation will be in Stuttgart (Mercedes Museum) on 25th January.
Car to be named "Mercedes GP Petronas RB 1".
http://www.motorsport-total.com/f1/news/20...t_10010604.html

Well 2 drivers and someone sitting around twiddling his thumbs.

RB 1 ? what doest it stand for?

Ross Brawn

Nico Rosberg first to drive Mercedes GP 2010 car

LINK

Schumacher wont sit in the car until 13th Feb? That must be bullshit.

So what?
It's seems more practical and productive for both the driver and the team to have a series of 3 days in the car with one driver, rather than half a day for each driver.

schumacher will not first test on the 13feb, thats for sure

It could be incredibly unfair. Imagine Schumi's test days being restricted by weather conditions...he'd be in serious trouble for Bahrain. It's quite likely too - IIRC Piquet only had 2 or 3 dry test days before last year.

This is good for MS in a way I think. By the 13th the car should be more reliable and MS should get more time on the car?

What about the old car? Can they put Michael in the old and Rosberg in new one for the first test? That will be the way to go imo.

The focus would be on Rosberg while Schumi will get some mileage.

Rosberg is there too.
Equally it can rain the whole week for Rosberg and remain dry for Schumacher.

It's not all about Schumacher.

I think there should be a seperate Schumacher thread so that the Schumacher fanatics can have their day.

RodrigoL as a Schumacher fanatic.

He's the lesser evil.

According to autosport.com Schumacher will test in the first week of February.

"Schumacher will have his first run for Mercedes at Valencia in the first week of February, when pre-season testing kicks off after the winter ban. It will be his first outing in a contemporary F1 car since he tested a Ferrari F2008 at Barcelona in April 2008 - his more recent Ferrari test having taken place in a two-year-old machine."


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80752

What...Do you think it's a sign of prestige

Ken, The Dummy driver ?