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[Hammer278]

You could ask Jenson that on twitter!

No I cant - I stopped following him, because he wasnt following me.....

He doesn't follow anyone who he thinks is quicker than him on a race track, so congratulations.

[LRW]

You could ask Jenson that on twitter!

No I cant - I stopped following him, because he wasnt following me.....

He doesn't follow anyone who he thinks is quicker than him on a race track, so congratulations.

Well HRT did contact me about a race seat, but I had to turn them down.

[Nin-Chin]

Norbert Haug has revealed that Mercedes is unlikely to run its Coanda-effect exhausts at this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Mercedes is currently on a run of five races without scoring a point, and ran back-to-back comparisons of its Coanda exhaust system against its previous configuration at the United States Grand Prix last weekend, with Nico Rosberg racing without the latest exhaust.

The teams will get the opportunity to run the 2013 tyres during Friday practice and Haug said that in order to analyse them properly it would be reverting to its older specification, but he confirmed the team will still have Coanda exhausts in 2013.

"We definitely start without [Coanda], we want to do the tyre test without any influence," Haug said. "We have proper data with which we can compare what we had at the start of the year and then we'll probably leave it like that, we will see but ... no Coanda tomorrow.

"Why? Because we think that they still have an influence on heating the tyres, and both the combinations lack aerodynamic downforce which we could not approve compared to the others. So we think that we have a more realistic base to what we have had at the beginning of the season, and we work from there. But it's very clear that you have to have Coanda next year because it gives you a benefit.

Asked if there were any plans to revert to the Coanda exhausts later in the weekend Haug said: "Not currently, no."

Having been the man to run the old exhausts in Austin, Rosberg said that he wasn't concerned about the team's recent lack of results but was only focused on the future.

"I'm not really thinking now about the past," Rosberg said. "What I'm thinking about is that we do the best we can at the moment to prepare ourselves for next year. For sure it's looking better for next year - a lot better - the people are really starting to have an impact; the new people that have joined the team. All the new people - there's been a massive amount of new people - so it will definitely be better."

[CookinFlat6]

"I'm not really thinking now about the past," Rosberg said. "What I'm thinking about is that we do the best we can at the moment to prepare ourselves for next year. For sure it's looking better for next year - a lot better - the people are really starting to have an impact; the new people that have joined the team. All the new people - there's been a massive amount of new people - so it will definitely be better."

makes sense, F1 is about people after all, consider this;
The fizzy drinks company came along and splashed cash, got the top staff and hey presto a few years of graft, the have 3 WCCs in a row

The inventors of the motorcar (cant get better pedigree than that) and absolute masters at various forms of motor racing over the last 100 years, have now splashed the cash, got the fastest driver, bought the whole F1 team and imported a surplus of staff with experience from winning teams

The cartoon company on the other hand have a new pay driver that cant score a point, have poached top staff from their competitors (Sam from Williams) and have lost Newey, Lewis and a host of top staff to Ferrari

Interesting times ahead indeed, can a rich history of winning (although not in the last couple of decades) plus drivers that look good off track to sponsors beat hard cash and the best staff and fastest drivers available?

Guess we will soon find out!

[What's Burning?]

When is Hamilton allowed to divulge some of the MP4-27's secrets to Mercedes?

[What's Burning?]

When is Hamilton allowed to divulge some of the MP4-27's secrets to Mercedes?

I think about something and ESPNF1 goes and posts the answer... I feel so special.

Lewis Hamilton says he will be able to speak to Mercedes before his McLaren contract expires at the end of the year.

The Brazilian Grand Prix was Hamilton's last race with McLaren but his contract with the team does not expire until December 31. However, he has confirmed that he's received permission from team principal Martin Whitmarsh to speak to Mercedes, though he says he won't be having much input on next year's car yet.

"I won't be doing much technical work with Mercedes," Hamilton is quoted in the Daily Telegraph. "But Martin says I am allowed to talk to people."

Hamilton added that his PR commitments would be greatly reduced at Mercedes and that he is looking forward to using that time to work harder ahead of the new season.

"I am going to have the biggest holiday I have had in a long, long time. I look forward to having, like, a third of the PR events that I have here. Maybe even a quarter. To having a bit more time in my life to be able to train and prepare. It will be a new car and a new experience and it is going to be interesting."

[vlad]

When is Hamilton allowed to divulge some of the MP4-27's secrets to Mercedes?

Do you really want Mercedes to become that unreliable?

[andrew]

When is Hamilton allowed to divulge some of the MP4-27's secrets to Mercedes?

Do you really want Mercedes to become that unreliable?

He'll need to get photocopier tips from Alonso!

[Hammer278]

When is Hamilton allowed to divulge some of the MP4-27's secrets to Mercedes?

Do you really want Mercedes to become that unreliable?

If the car becomes as 'unreliable' as McLaren and as fast, they can do a lot better than McLaren this season.

[What's Burning?]

Here's an explanation of Mercedes development decline over the season. It's clear they're addressing it with an eye towards 2013.

ESPNF1: Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug says his team's development was "not good enough" in 2012, but expects it to do better in 2013.

At the Chinese Grand Prix this year Mercedes won its first race since returning to the sport in 2010, but after a mid-season slump it it finished five of the final six races without scoring a point. Haug said the drop in performance was for several reasons, one of which was the team's late adoption of a Conada-effect exhaust.

"I think the team showed last year that over the winter we built quite a good car, but definitely since the middle of the season in the development race we have not been good enough and, in hindsight, we should have started much earlier with Coanda exhaust because it gives you a benefit if you can manage it properly," Haug said.

"Maybe in our case we also suffered a little bit from rear tyre stuff, with them being too hot and probably not having enough downforce. Then in addition the Coanda has probably just accelerated these problems. So we did not handle it in the best possible way. That's not an excuse but an explanation.

Haug also explained that Mercedes had enlarged its wind tunnel during the season at the cost of development time with the W03.

"Switching from 50% to 60% [model in the wind tunnel], which is absolutely what you have to do, costs you time [of roughly] six to eight weeks in the wind tunnel when you cannot continuously work," he added. "This did not help us either, but you have to do that now otherwise you will suffer next year."

[Hammer278]

Yeah, saw that. Hopefully it was both eyes, not just an eye!

[What's Burning?]

Yeah, saw that. Hopefully it was both eyes, not just an eye!

They need binoculars!

[Nin-Chin]

[youtube]63QiFu5M57I[/youtube]Mmm Mercedes admitting the car is bad

[Hammer278]

Wins the target in 2013 - Brawn

Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn says the team is targeting victories with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg next season.

After Rosberg won in China and was second in Monaco, Mercedes' gradually became less competitive as 2012 went on and Michael Schumacher's seventh place in Brazil brought to an end a five-race scoreless run. However, while Hamilton has been bracing himself for a tough campaign next season, Brawn says the aim is to challenge for victories throughout the year.

"Obviously we're working very hard to give both him and Nico the opportunity to win and take pole positions," Brawn is quoted by Autosport. "That's our ambition, our objective. It's obviously critical we improve from where we are. We're going to try [even] if we don't hit all our objectives next year. You never know what other people will do.

"I'd like to think we can do a few things of those things next year. I think Lewis was just playing things down. I'm sure in his heart he wants to win and set pole positions, but he understands the journey we've got to go on."

With Schumacher retiring, Brawn said Hamilton's arrival would provide a welcome boost to Mercedes.

"We're very excited about the prospect of working with Lewis. It's going to be very interesting for all of us. I'm sure he'll be different to Michael. The team are very excited that we're still able to have a driver of that calibre. As we get a stronger car, obviously the drivers will become even more critical for us."

_________________________________________

Bold claim from a team which scored 6 points in the last 6 races of 2012, bring it!!!

Interesting he says "he'll be different to Michael....team is excited to still have a driver of that calibre", I suspected Michael and Nico were taking the team in different directions in development, could this be a hint towards that?

[bud]

No I don't think so, sounds like he is saying they are happy to have another top line ex world champ driver.