Before the testing started the fans and supporters of Mercedes have had to put up with mediocre performances all they way though 2010. With the exception of Rosberg that drove the car to it's limits. Schumacher fans have also been feeling down, their hopes and expectations stirred up and spat back into their faces. Also with the exception of some glimmers of excellence, spotted about throughout the season. Preparation started early for Mercedes, testing times have brought up the issue of reliability (hydraulics), and have produced average times, much like last year. Schumacher earned a top place finish in Jerez Day 2... This was just the performance of the car with super-soft tires. Michael has recently played down the team's and his own chances at winning races early on this season (and catching the Redbull's). Although the team has seemed to have solved the issue of the faulty hydraulics. I am happy however that MSC is keeping his hopes realistic and is not pulling his fans and the team's fans into a false sense of security. I also believe the process of bringing the team back to the top will take a long time. The car looks brilliant "yes" but this does not mean it is fast. Still there is a few more weeks until the first GP, Mercedes have a lot of time to solve their issues "lack of speed" and familiarise themselves with the tyres. The other way of approaching MSC's output of info at Jerez is simply that his experience will have told him not to tell the journalists and the reporters the truth about the progress of the Merc. He doesn't like the press "true", he will want to hide serious stats and info about the MGP-W02. He will want to show the real preformance of the car when it counts, like he said yesterday "we will see in Bahrain". Simply though we will have to wait, we all have to. I think out waiting time will end in Bahrain Quali, where the teams are actually blasting the cars round the track at full speed to get put a fast lap time in. There we will really see who is the fastest driver and car on track.
When asked about the car's apparent lack of speed, Rosberg said: "Yeah, but we expected that. This is an interim car, it doesn't have a lot to do with the car we will have in Bahrain. "We just need to put miles on it. It's important to get the systems working, like KERS, the cooling, and to work on reliability."
Very true, the car is a "blank sheet", if you know what I mean... They have so many things to test and add. New aero packages, things like that. I actually now think the Michael reporting on the car was a decoy for the real info on the Merc. Put it another way... Mercedes told Michael to lie about the car, people would believe his words because of experience and then in Bahrain, SURPRISE, Mercedes take pole and the win. Anyway, this could go to both extremes, lets see what happens,
As much as I would love Schumacher to do well and win a few race, I think the Mercedes just isn't as good as the Red Bull and Ferrari.
It will be closer but not faster in Bahrain, from Bahrain though the improvements on the car should increase not decrease.
