Mercedes W03

[mikec]

Well maybe I'm jumping the gun here but I must say I wasn't too impressed with Rosbergs initial shakedown of the W03 on Day 2 in Jerez. Hopefully the teams are still far apart on fuel loads and shakedown programmes as the Force India/Sahara car seems to be one of the quickest of the bunch. I hope Ross didn't build the latest car to Shueys specifications and left Nico out in the cold again.Hopefully by the end of the week the W03 will move up the time charts and give us some hope. I gotta admit though I'm getting kinda scared already. Tell me I'm wrong Mika.

[LateApex]

I think:

- It's too early to read much into the testing times

- It would be great to see Shuey do well (for the sport), but Nico will out pace him again this year

- It would be great to see the Silver Arrows challenge the front 3 teams

- The W-Duct could be a fascinating development. What other secrets lurk under the carbon?

- Force India looks like a quick, elegant interpretation of the rules, but rumors of their financial instability lead me to think they are running on low fuel, and won't be able to keep up development through the season. Ala Sauber last year.

[mikec]

I think:

- It's too early to read much into the testing times

- It would be great to see Shuey do well (for the sport), but Nico will out pace him again this year

- It would be great to see the Silver Arrows challenge the front 3 teams

- The W-Duct could be a fascinating development. What other secrets lurk under the carbon?

- Force India looks like a quick, elegant interpretation of the rules, but rumors of their financial instability lead me to think they are running on low fuel, and won't be able to keep up development through the season. Ala Sauber last year.

Well I hope you are right but I'm still not feeling good about this car. I thought they would show some extra good pace with Nico today but no such luck.

[MIKA27]

Well maybe I'm jumping the gun here but I must say I wasn't too impressed with Rosbergs initial shakedown of the W03 on Day 2 in Jerez. Hopefully the teams are still far apart on fuel loads and shakedown programmes as the Force India/Sahara car seems to be one of the quickest of the bunch. I hope Ross didn't build the latest car to Shueys specifications and left Nico out in the cold again.Hopefully by the end of the week the W03 will move up the time charts and give us some hope. I gotta admit though I'm getting kinda scared already. Tell me I'm wrong Mika.

You're wrong Mike! You instructed me bud!

The Silver Arrows will prevail this season and I think all teams, not just MercedesAMG are keeping a few aces up their sleeves as well as ensuring the cars aren't pushed too close to the limit causing damage such as Lotus who i have no doubt, were pushing their boundaries. It was great to see Kimi in such fine form by the way!

My thinking is that if Mercedes just came to Barcellona with a car that dominated in testing alone, there will be a great many copy cats (McLaren and RBR come to mind) of their new W-Duct amongst other peripherals. I think Ross Brawn and company have designed a fantastic car using the past two seasons worth of information and perhaps season 3 will show some promise?

By my saying Merecedes will prevail (Wishful thinking on my part), I am not assuming they will dominate, but rather do believe they can be up there with the top teams as they too rightfully should be 'a' top team with their racing pedigree.

As for drivers within the team, I'm going for Schumacher and actually hoping the car is more suited to his style. For all intensive purposes, it all indicates that even Pirelli have created better rubber this season which even Schumacher has commended. Perhaps the package has finally all fallen in place for MercedesAMG?

EDIT:

F1: Mercedes Barcelona testing - Day 2 report

Nico Rosberg was at the wheel of the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 W03 car at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today.

• A productive morning session allowed the team to make good progress through the planned technical programme'

• A transmission oil leak was found early in the afternoon which could not be resolved in time to complete any productive running

• Nico completed 82 laps today, adding a further 382 km to take the F1 W03's total mileage to 1164 km

Michael will be back in the car tomorrow before Nico finishes the test programme on Friday.

Nico Rosberg

"It was good to get into proper testing today. Early in the morning, it was a bit too cold on the track to collect some decent information, however later we were able to get into our planned work. In the afternoon session, unfortunately we had a transmission oil leak which meant that I wasn't able to complete any further running. That doesn't affect my positive feelings about our test programme, and things like that can happen in the early stages of running a new car. Now I am looking forward to driving again on Friday."

Date: Wednesday 22 February 2012

Track: Circuit de Catalunya

Driver: Nico Rosberg

No of Laps: 82 laps

Best Lap Time: 1:24.555

Kms Covered: 382 kms

Track Length: 4.655 km

F1 W03 Mileage: 1164 km

Weather: Cool & sunny

[mikec]

Ok feeling a little better but haven't looked at todays times yet.

[mikec]

Ok feeling a little better but haven't looked at todays times yet.

Hey Schumi put it up there,probably running less fuel than the Williams for sure. I think Ferrari and Macca are sandbagging. If Ferrari aren't they have a lot of work to do.

[MIKA27]

Hey Schumi put it up there,probably running less fuel than the Williams for sure. I think Ferrari and Macca are sandbagging. If Ferrari aren't they have a lot of work to do.

I think alot of teams are sandbagging bud. There's nothing really to gain by pushing the car to it's limits, nothing to prove so surely teams are driving in order to better understand their cars BUT, not fully showing their potential so as to avoid prying eyes from the other teams who would no doubt start trying to copy their components.

[mikec]

I think alot of teams are sandbagging bud. There's nothing really to gain by pushing the car to it's limits, nothing to prove so surely teams are driving in order to better understand their cars BUT, not fully showing their potential so as to avoid prying eyes from the other teams who would no doubt start trying to copy their components.

[/quog herene whole hote]

Well according to Ross this morning he feels the W03 is not ready to win yet! What? They are also taking extra steps to hide a possible radical diffuser out back and a F-Duct style rear wing to compliment the DRS system. With the W duct front wing as well Mercedes seem to have gone whole hog to make downforce lost due to the new rules. I really hope Ross is just playing everybody right now and when qualifying for Austrailia starts there will be jaws dropping around the whole paddock. I hope so...I really hope so.