In an interview with the BBC, Michael Schumacher admits that he is "slightly concerned" about the pace of the new Mercedes. He also said it would be "difficult" for Mercedes to win races at the start of the season next month. This doesn't mean they will not win any races, it just means that, for now, their car is ****. With no information about fuel loads, tyre compounds, whether teams are running KERS, DRS (rear wing), ... the lap times in testing mean absolutely nothing. But the teams have a rough idea of how competitive their car is, and Rosberg has already said that he is pinning his hopes on a Bahrain upgrade. Now that MS has confirmed the car is lacking pace at this early stage, I think they can be ruled out of both titles. They will bring a big package to Bahrain, but so will the other teams. Red Bull and Ferrari already look the quickest, and both teams have yet to introduce their aerodynamic innovations. While Mercedes try and catch up, Alonso or Vettel will dominate. Even if Mercedes outdevelop the other teams, they will be catching up late in the season - and it's likely that they will not fully catch up. Then there is the issue of the tyres. Michael Schumacher said in Abu Dhabi that he felt comfortable with the tyres, but now he is not so convinced. Schumacher said that his comeback was a three year plan - perhaps Schumacher should wait until 2012 - or just retire instead of wasting another season struggling.
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."
At the moment, all top teams have have interim cars. Almost all have their 2010 front wing, and hardly any aero innovations. While Mercedes improve aerodynamically, so do the others. That is why Mercedes being already behind is big trouble for them.
You're talking out of your backside. Rosberg has said the team is performing at the speed expected at the moment which means they aren't going to be showing their true pace until Bahrain. They are hardly down in the rankings!
No team will show their true pace until Bahrain, but the teams will be aware that their car is not as good as the others. We can see that from Schumacher's comments today.
I value Schumacher's opinion more than Rosberg's. Schuey says he is "slightly concerned" about the pace of the new Mercedes - and others just James Allen are in agreement that the Mercedes do not have the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull.
This is only Schumacher's word though. It may be it is he that is struggling with the car, and Rosberg is actually doing very well with it. None of the engineers etc have said the same things as Schumacher. Rosberg does know what he is talking about, and to say you value Schumacher's opinions over Rosberg's isn't a fair judgement on Rosberg. He is a good driver and can be very consistent with the right car, and so was Schumacher. To me, this could be Schumacher making out the car isn't that good, but will 'surprise' us when it comes to Bahrain. If someone else in the team said something along the lines as he did, I would probably go along with his presumptions
All psychology imo. He's making the other teams think its a cake walk and dont develop as much, so they come to Bahrain with a 1-2 until a problem That is just my opinion
Because he's seven times world champion and recognised as one of the most knowledgeable drivers on the grid. Plenty of teams say they have a good car when it's ****, nobody does the opposite which would suggest Schumacher is just being honest. Rosberg's just stopped on track. Their reliability has been terrible in testing so far, they really don't look like being competitive to me this season. The general consensus seems to be that Red Bull, Ferrari and maybe McLaren have the best cars. Rubens has put in a very eye-catching performance this morning, half a second quicker than anything else in the last four days, set on an eight lap stint, and not on the super softs.
AG Rosberg is the son of a former WDC, has grown up with F1, has been in F1 for long enough and got every inch out of the Williams and is largely regarded as one of the most intelligent drivers with a high aptitude for understanding aerodynamics and the mechanics. He said their pace (speed not reliability) is as expected before the major upgrade at Bahrain. He is a very open driver and also tells it how it is so to say Schumacher's opinion is worth more is really rude. As I've been watching F1 since Lorca was in nappies (including watching Schumacher before he had a race win let alone WDC) that must mean my opinion is worth more than Lorca's. I'm getting seriously annoyed that Rosberg has suffered all the reliability mishaps. What's going on is he testing KERS and DRS whereas Schumacher just gets to play with the tyres? This is not a good sign for Merc at all.
