Interesting. I wonder how much Mercedes ran that last season. Their suspension was so soft in the early rounds, their outside endplate seemed to be constantly touching the ground during heavy cornering, Rosberg had some insane roll during turn 1 in China when he got pole. And their mechanical grip was excellent in Monaco. I wonder if this is part of the reason they have such a hard time understanding the tyres, if it's so easy to get lost in setup it must be impossible to understand the tyres; is it a purely mechanical issue causing problems or the way the tyres are responding to it?
Autosport understands that no other team has removed its mechanical suspension for front-to-rear interconnected suspension system, as anti roll bars and torsion springs are still evident. So Mercedes has the march on this technology. Its lap time advantage will vary by track but a couple of tenths is the likely gain. For many teams the investment is going to be hard to justify, compared to a relatively cheap proven mechanical suspension. please log in to view this image
Yes, I think this is very much part of Mercedes' recent difficulties. It is important to remember that the tyres form an integral part of the whole 'suspension system' (although they are of course, not suspended!), in that they are the primary 'reactive' element to the track surface, and that this initial reaction is subsequently 'controlled' (or attempted to be controlled!) by various devices linking wheels to chassis, which fall under the common tag of 'suspension'. Since this particular Mercedes' innovation is designed to feed back – and therefore also 'to' – all four wheels for every movement experienced by each tyre individually, I can see lots of headache potential. I would expect the car to feel rather 'wooden'* by comparison to more conventional systems, which enable a driver to more intuitively understand what is happening at each corner of the car. - - -o0o- - - *Perhaps it should come as no surprise that it is Mercedes** who are pioneering this route? When one considers that Mercedes road cars have often been criticised for alienating the driver through mechanical wizardry (particularly with regard to suspension) and that subsequent generations of cars have tended to reinforce this tradition, one might conclude that Mercedes' corporate mentality is to try to reduce the need for a driver as much as possible, rather than see him or her as integral to the vehicle and its purpose of transporting all transported by it! **The easiest comparison is their big domestic road car rival: BMW; who take pride in the philosophy of deliberately involving the driver.
Eternal, what pain, I feel no pain mate, take some of the Hamilton medicine you will feel much better !!!!
Hamilton did well today to be honest. Now he has the whole team behind him I am sure he will be unstoppable, nothing wrong with that right?
I'm remaining cautious the acid test is whether or not they can actually develop this car through the year. We know that they can produce a quick car out of the box the bigger test is can they sustain this early season pace?
I think they probably can. In previous years they've given up because the title has gone, but that's unlikely to happen with Hamilton there.
http://www.f1today.net/en/news/mercedes-immediately-scraps-team-orders--lauda So mercedes wont remember what Rosberg did in malaysia when hamilton pulls up behind...
I'm pretty sure that Lauda also said (or maybe it was Brawn) that "interventions from the pit wall" may sometimes need to be made!
Nobody likes it when team orders come in to play, but they do serve a valuable purpose. Had Vettel/Webber taken each other out, or Hamilton/Rosberg raced and run out of fuel, those points could be what lose you a championship. Using them to favor one driver for an entire season though isn't so good.
