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[1Lemon]

no Mercedes thread would be complete without discussing how it's the ugliest livery on the grid.

Not quite silver, not quite grey, not quite white. They've gone to a dulex paint chart and picked a colour somewhere in-between two colours. And their sponsors really don't help. Petronas Green is just wrong on that car.

To be fair, I think the reason some cars like McLaren could be argued to have prettier livery is simply because they dont have so many pesky SPONSORS with their funny colours. When Tooned has the most prestigious space on the car its easier to blend the team colour

That goes for Lotus as well

Lotus marketing people were clever, and convinced the brands that their logo will look better in gold, and indeed they all do.

[What's Burning?]

no Mercedes thread would be complete without discussing how it's the ugliest livery on the grid.

Not quite silver, not quite grey, not quite white. They've gone to a dulex paint chart and picked a colour somewhere in-between two colours. And their sponsors really don't help. Petronas Green is just wrong on that car.

Lemon we are in complete agreement!

[Hammer278]

The car looks fine to me, especially whenever it locks out the front row and keeps the lead after Lap 1.

[What's Burning?]

The car looks fine to me, especially whenever it locks out the front row and keeps the lead after Lap 1.

Take off those teal colored glasses.

[racechick]

Well I quite like the light turquoise colour. It's in all the shops this year and you can get LOADS of ace bits and pieces that match with the ( expensive) Merc gear. I got cut offs and shorts that match brill

[What's Burning?]

Okay, let's get this straight... I've got nothing against teal, and I've got nothing against silver, it's the combination which I find a bit cheezy, especially the airbrushing part of it. perhaps bold teal stripes, ANYTHING is an improvement over what they started the season out with. Mercedes knows the drill, they've already tried to update the livery once this year which was a miniscule improvement.

[What's Burning?]

Always looking for healthy conspiracy theories here... how about this one? Could Paddy Lowe have known about McLaren's issues going forward and been instrumental in orchestrating Lewis' and subsequently his own move to Mercedes?

Lewis had been quoted as saying that he'd rather have taken a year off than stay with McLaren for the 2013 season. You don't have that much conviction into something unless you're pretty damned sure of something.

[racechick]

Always looking for healthy conspiracy theories here... how about this one? Could Paddy Lowe have known about McLaren's issues going forward and been instrumental in orchestrating Lewis' and subsequently his own move to Mercedes?

Lewis had been quoted as saying that he'd rather have taken a year off than stay with McLaren for the 2013 season. You don't have that much conviction into something unless you're pretty damned sure of something.

Oooooooh. Take it a step further. Did Lowe design that car??

[What's Burning?]

Design as in some type of "sabotage"?

I wouldn't go that far, we're far from the days of one man driving the entire show, not even Adrian Newey would be able to work without running his design by set of sounding boards so a team would be able to pick up on an intended wrong path IMO.

I've just always found it to be a bit suspect that Lewis is wooed over to Mercedes, and the Paddy quietly moves, and is now going to officially be running the show after Brawn's departure in a yearish or so.

[Hammer278]

I don't think so...it's too far fetched. Orchestrating to make next year's car a failure is probably next to impossible in a Formula 1 operation. Lowe wasn't working on the car all by his lonesome.

I think it's more of Lewis being fed up with the idiocy in the team and the politicking bullsh*t going around thanks largely to his ex-teammate....and wanted to leave. Lowe probably saw the same picture and wanted out too.

The car is bad simply because McLaren f**ked up....they actually ran an illegal car in winter testing and said it was awesome (LOL) and then realized it was illegal. The top guys in the team could see what was coming and decided to piss off.

[What's Burning?]

I'm talking simply about the pair of them jumping ship as a package and Lewis' move simply being phase one.

[Hammer278]

It was Lauda who got Hamilton to leave. And Wolff was always trying to get his buddy Lowe to steer the same ship with him, so no I don't buy into Lowe being behind the whole thing.

It wasn't an easy decision for Lewis either, unless he lied about that 'taking a holiday just to free my mind and think about it, and then gave Martin a call to say byebye' jazz. Plus, the little things...when he said he's leaving a 'very quick car' for Perez, I do think he genuinely believed it. Who would've thought a team could go from race winner to midfield mutts? Unless it was a set up, which I find very hard to believe.

[What's Burning?]

The best laid plans. If Lauda and others believes that was the case, then there's no conspiracy. I guess it depends on the relationship/trust Lewis had with Paddy, and the skills, technical and otherwise Paddy had in orchestrating the move.

I still believe that the "vision" came from one mind and that the coincidence didn't happen, but was designed.

[Hammer278]

Since we're on the subject, I've been wondering for a while now about Lowe's track record. What exactly has he achieved in F1 for Wolff to like him so much and for Mercedes waiting to shove him into Brawn's place? I mean the guy is good, since it was considered a huge loss for McLaren when he left, and he's going to be Mercedes' TP in the future...but why?

[What's Burning?]

Since we're on the subject, I've been wondering for a while now about Lowe's track record. What exactly has he achieved in F1 for Wolff to like him so much and for Mercedes waiting to shove him into Brawn's place? I mean the guy is good, since it was considered a huge loss for McLaren when he left, and he's going to be Mercedes' TP in the future...but why?

That was part of the question I had, wondering if Paddy negotiated his position based on the leverage of being able to deliver Hamilton to Mercedes. It doesn't mean he is not qualified to be a TP but I just have a hard time believing it's all a coincidence and the two weren't linked somehow.