I haven't read the article but maybe it is capable of those figures on full revs and boost as opposed to what they actually run in a race?
It would be foolish of Mercedes to back 1 driver now, they have the chance to win both championships so it would make sense for them to give both drivers equal opportunities now and then back 1 driver at the tail end of the season if they have a comfortable lead in the constructors over the rest of the field. As for Lewis, yet again it's just bad luck but Rosberg will have his fair share of it too as will most drivers on the grid.
Well where's the competition for those two? I mean it wont be Williams or Force India as they can't keep up with development and McLaren look to be restructuring at the moment in the arrival of Honda so Mercedes will want to protect it's secrets and maybe hinder McLaren. Ferrari no as the car is heavily overweight and are still trying to sort things out, like Red Bull they probably wont even be a threat until 2/3 into the season when the power unit has been optimized. And even after all that Mercedes' actual gap is yet to be revealed, so I believe team orders will not be needed for a while yet as Lewis and Rosberg will be the only 2 fighting for the championship this year while the rest fight for 3rd. All Nico and Lewis have to worry about is beating the other at the start and having more luck with the reliability and it should just be a cruise for them literally. If one Mercedes driver has all the bad luck the other could very easily have a 100pts gap on them even before we get to Europe, that I guess Mercedes would protect to a degree, unless the other driver was massively performing better...
Will be interesting to see things 3-4 races in, were Mercedes the only team to really push the car so early or was that a genuine pace advantage? I'm not going to bemoan domination until I see it in more than 3 races
I think it's the opposite and Mercedes didn't really push themselves. Didn't Rosberg set his fastest lap on lap 19? The hope of avoiding more domination could still come from the idea that teams will be finding a lot more time with updates than they were before though. It's up to McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari to catch up and save the season.
If it's one team dominating again, at least their drivers are fairly even in ability, so there should be competition between them. Hamilton may have the slight edge, so starting 25 points behind should help make for a more interesting championship. Some close battles between them two would at least be an improvement on the back end of last season, regardless of the gap to the rest of the field.
hmm, the FL of Rosberg was set early in the race, when it was warm, and on softs (I think), the others when it was cooler and on hards, anyone got a list of the lap by lap times? That would make for a better comparison, Rosberg set that time a few laps after the safety car, so it would've been at a time when he was really pushing to make a gap, after he had the gap he didn't need to push so much.
BARBADOS NATION NEWSPAPER TOP GEAR FESTIVAL Barbados and the Barbados Tourism Authority announced today that Lewis Hamilton will appear on the track behind the wheel of his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One car during an adrenaline-fuelled motoring weekend on May 17 and 18. Fans can expect to hear the spine-tingling roar of the F1 W04âs Mercedes-Benz Formula One engine as the Mercedes AMG Petronas car makes history with its Caribbean debut by appearing at the newly renovated Bushy Park Circuit. It will be a chance for motor enthusiasts to witness Lewis drive in only his second season with Mercedes â having joined the Silver Arrows works team for the 2013 season â and achieving five pole positions in his F1 W04. Vice president of the Barbados Tourism Authority in the United Kingdom Petra Roach was excited about the development. âBy bringing the F1 W04 to Barbados, weâre bringing the thrill of Formula One to the festival. Having been driven by Lewis and his team mate Nico Rosberg during last yearâs season, it achieved three race wins, nine podium appearances and eight pole position,â she said. Petrol-heads are in for a for a thrilling weekend of high-octane motoring action as Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond take part in a non-stop schedule of motoring antics that will see The Stig and the Top Gear Live Stunt Driving Team take to the track in a series of thrilling stunts, races and challenges as well as legendary drivers from Global Rally Cross compete in the first round of their 2014 season. (PR) Isnt that cutting it a little close? 05 FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÃA PIRELLI 2014 (Catalunya) 09 - 11 May 06 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2014 (Monte Carlo) 22 - 25 May
Mercedes are miles ahead on pace at the moment, but the pace of development will be rapid this year. Look at Red Bull- even without fuelgate, the times they got their car running they were very quick. McLaren were solid and their car is very basic with all sorts of aero and development potential. The one thing about the drivers championship is that you could well see Lewis and Nico 'taking points off one another' in the sense that they can both win races. Reliability for the first 6 or 7 races might prove key. If any teams stay in the hunt and the find some real development, they may be able to pressure the mercedes. Hopefully we get a battle and not a domination by one team- that is the worst thing that can happen.
Mercedes had a clear long-term plan ahead at the time when they drew up Hamilton's contract. Their's was a realistic plan to be challenging for the World Championship(s) by 2014, while others continued with greater focus on their existing campaigns and began 2014 chassis development later. That said, Horner* was on the case very early too, no more than a couple of months behind Mercedes; a luxury afforded by their supremacy whilst Ferrari and McLaren (and others) fought very hard for the minor places. To put it simply, Mercedes' long-term plan gave the team a head start. [Edit: *Horner? – I meant Newey of course!]
Mercedes designer Aldo Costa says he doubts his W05 will dominate the entire 2014 season. Lewis Hamilton took pole with the new silver single seater and Nico Rosberg dominated the season-opening race in Melbourne, with many observers believing the German driver had hidden performance to spare on the Albert Park roads. But Italian Costa, who joined Mercedes from Ferrari and led the design of the new W05, does not think the German marque will dominate throughout 2014. "No, I don't think we can talk about dominance," he told the Italian magazine Autosprint. "We have seen the progress that Red Bull made between the Bahrain test and the first race -- they were much more competitive than they were in winter testing. "This gives an indication of how fast progress and the resolution of problems is in formula one," said Costa. "And it may well be that in a few grands prix many other teams will be at a good level," he added. Costa, 52, agrees that the performance of the 'power unit' is particularly important in F1's new era, but he doubts that Mercedes is as far ahead of Ferrari and Renault as some currently believe. Asked if rumours of a 50 horse power advantage for Mercedes make sense, he answered: "No, I don't think they do. "Let me explain: as teams, we have GPS data, so I think everyone can see that, when it's running at full power, the Renault engine has remarkable performance. "So probably their deficit at this time is that they cannot maintain this level of performance throughout a race because of temperature, or fatigue. "But I think that this is a problem that will gradually be solved," Costa added.
My view of this is very much in agreement with da Costa. It is not the ultimate power so much as the power-unit's integrity and reliability. In particular, it seems to me that Mercedes have found a better solution to integrate the ERS unit. When (rather than if) Red Bull achieve a similar reliability, I believe we will see the superiority of their chassis, so we may see things become very tight in terms of points at the end of the season. What a shame some people took the cheap 'insurance' of double points…
Hamilton better not have another issue this weekend. He has had massive unreliability compared to Nico in testing, practice and the last race plus Nico has covered so much more mileage than him. As of this moment I do not like the way things look at Mercedes. Hopefully my faith will be restored in the team this weekend
I've been worried about this weekend for a while now, I'm not confident about the reliability at all.
Well in a way its as if Lewis' season hasn't even started yet. We've waited since the end of last season to see where the relative performance of the drivers is yet come the first race Lewis' car falters before the race even starts and now we've had to wait an extra 2 weeks. If rain interrupts qualy and the race this weekend i'ts gonna make it even worse cause we'll have to again wait until the next race to find out where the drivers stand. As for the unreliability? Yeah I do not have a good feeling about it at the moment.....it all looks a little too easy for Nico while Lewis is consistently having car problems.
It's painful to watch Lewis lead a race sometimes, I just sit there anticipating a problem to occur. I'm really hoping it turns around for him this weekend.
