Current Mercedes

Mercedes GP

FIA Entry: Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team
Car 7: Michael Schumacher
Car 8: Nico Rosberg
Engine: Mercedes V8
Team Principal: Ross Brawn
Technical Director: Bob Bell
Race Engineer Car 7: Mark Slade
Race Engineer Car 8: Tony Ross

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2010
Races Entered 19
Race Wins 0
Pole Positions 0
Fastest Laps 0
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

Team History

The Mercedes team history splits into two parts. In 1954 the famous pre-war Silver Arrows entered the F1 world championship and recorded a 1-2 at their first race. Fangio went on to win the drivers championship that year and again in 1955. Mercedes withdrew at the end of the 1955 season after the accident which killed 80 spectators at Le Mans which involved one of their cars.

The current team entered F1 in 2010 after Mercedes bought Brawn Grand Prix. Brawn Grand Prix, winners of the Drivers Championship, with Jenson Button, and the constructor’s championship in 2009, grew out of the ashes of Honda’s F1 entry after Honda had withdrawn from F1 at the end of the 2008 season after only a single Grand Prix win for Button in Hungary 2006.

Prior to the Honda takeover in 2006 the team had raced under the name of British America racing which had acquired the assets and race entry of the Tyrrell F1 team in 1999. BAR competed in 118 races without a single victory. The high points for the team were 2 pole positions (both for Button – San Marino 2004 and Canada 2005) and 2nd in the constructors championship in 2004.

Tyrrell were amongst the most successful private F1 teams taking part in 463 Grands Prix, scoring 33 victories and 3 Drivers Championships, all with Jackie Stewart.

2010

Having replaced Button and Barrichello with Nico Rosberg and 7 times WDC Michael Schumacher many expected great things of the new Mercedes team in 2010 but they had an indifferent season.

Rosberg managed 3 podiums for the team but Schumacher, coming back from retirement, struggled with the new cars, tyres and limited testing under the revised regulations. The team finished 4th in the Constructors Championship.

2011

For 2011 Mercedes retain the same driver line up and are hoping for better things from their MGP W02 chassis.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Here's a video that clarifies little

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

I imagine they get around it by being 'active' - in that it counteracts the pitch and roll of the suspension in the same way that the active suspension of the 80s and 90s did, yet it's actually 'passive' (and therefore legal) in that it only operates once another part has worked, i.e. the same way that the front DRS worked - on it's own it would be classed as active aero and therefore illegal but because it worked as a result of the legal rear wing DRS working, it became passive and therefore legal. If that makes sense.
Ted Kravitz confirmed that Mercedes and "a few other teams" were working on this system but Mercedes seem to have it working better than others already.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I knew this but should have shared it. Saw it somewhere else. The difference between the systems is that the Lotus one was directly influenced by outside forces making it illegal whereas, I think, the Mercedes system reacts to other mechanics within the car. Something to do with the brakes, I think.

 

[The Artist.....]

ExtremeNinja...

Presumably it's something along the lines that when the brakes are applied, the brake fluid acts to increase the resistance in the front suspension to prevent the car dipping at the front .. Still not sure how a system like that would be legal though....

 

[cider_and_toast]

Bit of a strange strategy call from Mercedes to Hamilton on Sunday. Lewis jumped on the radio to ask the team if the fast approaching Alonso was on a 2 or 3 stopper. Lewis who was on a 2 stopper obviously wanted to know if he had a fight on his hands or if there was little point in holding up Alonso because they were on different levels of tyre wear etc. The team told Hamilton that Alonso was on a 3 stopper but they still wanted Lewis to keep Alonso behind him. Hamilton rightly pointed out that it would be difficult to do because they were entering the DRS zone. Sure enough, with in a lap or so, Lewis had out braked himself and flat spotted the tyres resulting in a pit stop.

Now I'm not sure if he was due to pit then anyway but it did seem to me at the time a strange call to ask Hamilton to carry out what on the face of it was an almost impossible task. Perhaps Mercedes felt they didn't have the pace to stick within the 1 pit stop window of the 2 stop strategy (over the 3) and therefore needed to slow the charging Alonso down?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Rosberg was given a similar call when he had Massa on his heels. I think what they were saying is that we need to continue to race our own race but that Ferrari's race is looking quicker than ours at the moment so we could really do with slowing them down, too, if ours is going to playout with the maximum yield. Although it seemed like a contradiction it was reactionary and looked like they were trying to make the best of where they were, which was not in as good a place as Ferrari.

 

[Viscount]

Presumably they thought/hoped they might still be racing Alonso towards the end of the race so didn't want to give him the clear air to build up a gap.

 

[Bill Boddy]

So it was the team's call and not Hamilton's. I did think that the late braking was not a brilliant idea when it meant a lock-up like that.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Viscount. Yep. Or, similarly, realising that they might not be racing Alonso at the end and trying to engineer a situation where they might be.

 

[The Pits]

I would have thought he would have had the call to pit before the lock up, so would have known that he only had a few more corners on those tyres, so not such an issue.

 

[Josh]

I thought he said after the race that he had to pit immediately because he locked up the tyres?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Seemed that they were still hoping for a few more laps on those tyres but that it all depended on keeping Alonso behind for it to work. Once Alonso had got past then it made sense for them to pit, but if Hamilton had kept him behind (a tall order) then they could have stuck to "plan A" rather than moving to "plan B". That is as I read it but I may be wrong.

 

[The Pits]

I thought he said after the race that he had to pit immediately because he locked up the tyres?

I missed that, thanks Josh

 

[Brogan]

At the rate Alonso was catching Hamilton, how on earth did the team expect Hamilton to be able to keep Alonso behind for more than a few corners?

Stupid call.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I don't think it affected the outcome of their race at all. Ferrari's three stop always looked quicker, once the race began to unfold, than Mercedes' planned two-stopper. Whether Hamilton had let Alonso go or tried to keep him behind, I think 5th was about as good as they were going to achieve. Trying to keep Alonso behind, whilst ultimately futile, was their last chance at salvaging a higher finishing spot. All in all, despite perhaps choosing the wrong strategy from the outset, I think that Hamilton and Mercedes put together a competent race.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Brogan, Gary Anderson said as much before Hamilton had locked his brakes up.

 

[Brogan]

I agree ExtremeNinja

But Hamilton was all over the place trying to keep Alonso behind and it was only due to Alonso's awareness and experience that he didn't take both of them out when he locked up.

It was an unnecessary risk.

Thanks cider_and_toast, I didn't hear that.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I just thought it was great defensive driving and a superb bit of late braking! He made the corner without any problem at all.

Agree that it was an unnecessary risk, though. Perhaps Merc should have told him to let Alonso go but he did a great job of doing what he was asked to do.

 

[Bill Boddy]

It was a superb piece of driving except for locking up the brakes, flat spotting the tyre very badly, missing the apex entirely, nearly taking Alonso out, losing speed due to overshooting allowing Alonso the inside line for the next corner and also coming out of the corner slower than Alonso ensuring that he lost position on the short straight.

 

[F1ang-o]

Lap 31 FA pass on LH
Lap 32......... LH pits for tyres... I think it was Martin Brundle? who said..... the Left front was down to the canvas.