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[Big Azza]

Have you heard of Aldo Costa? He is the designer of this year's Mercedes car. But I have heard no one mention his name.

That's really surprising considering how everyone kept raving on about Newey when Vettel was winning all his titles. Is it a double-standard? Or can we all start to show Aldo some love?

(Probably ill-timed considering Hamilton's recent gremlins....)

[geetface9]

Yeah that's a good point, he hasn't had any mention in any of the coverage I've seen. I honestly thought he was still with ferrari It's not really fair that he's had no mention is it? In defense of the media, newey has won championships with three different teams so that sets him apart, but aldo was a huge part of the ferrari dominance in the early 2000's along with rory byrne and ross brawn, so surely one would think he'd be given some credit. It seems the only ones anybody mentions about mercedes is paddy lowe, toto wolff, and niki lauda. Hopefully they pay him enough for him to not worry about it I'll bet ferrari did!!!

[geetface9]

Having said all that, I was just pondering so I'm going to do it 'out loud' so to speak......I'm not trying to take anything away from aldo costa by asking this. How much of the performance is the car design and how much is the power unit? I guess that could be quite simply answered by the gap mercedes has to the next best mercedes-powered team of williams, so a lot of it is the car.

[CookinFlat6]

Lots of mention of Aldo on the Merc thread. Sacked from Ferrari and blamed, he was out of F1 till Ross brawn brought him into the dream team. Primarily a mechanical guy he was responsible for the Ferraris excellent tyre use before he was sacked and Ferrari have struggled since with chassis
At Merc he is head of suspension and mechanical grip and is responsible for solving their tyre munching and making frics much better than the industry leader lotus
Not made a pop star like Newey because at Merc there are genius level engineers like Aldo in charge of different areas. And ofcourse mechanical grip was not as sexy as aero for the last while.
At red bull they create the myth of Newey building the whole car etc himself so it's easy for you boys to understand and cheer for along with 'The star' driver myth of Seb the Fangio reincarnation

[Big Azza]

Having said all that, I was just pondering so I'm going to do it 'out loud' so to speak......I'm not trying to take anything away from aldo costa by asking this. How much of the performance is the car design and how much is the power unit? I guess that could be quite simply answered by the gap mercedes has to the next best mercedes-powered team of williams, so a lot of it is the car.

Yeah, the fact that a Renault-powered team is 2nd in the WCC, ahead of Williams also supports that. This car so far is proving to be better than the 1988 McLaren. That car had 3 finishes off the podium, Senna had a run of 3 non-points finishes between the Italian and Spanish Grands Prix of that year, whilst Prost would always finish in first and 2nd. So far this year, the Mercedes has not finished off the podium.

There were 3 DNF's, 4 if you count Senna only being classified 10th at Italy after an accident 2 laps from the end. 5 DNF's if you count his DSQ in the opening race.

So far in 2014, there have been only 3 DNF's for Mercedes, and the car is yet to finish off the podium. (However, all 3 DNF's have been technical issues, versus 2 with the McLaren of '88).

But this is history-making stuff - this car could go down as one of the greatest of all time.

[racechick]

5 major issues for Merc. Lewis' brakes and fire would both have been DNf's in a race.

[Big Azza]

5 major issues for Merc. Lewis' brakes and fire would both have been DNf's in a race.

I'm sure that there were probably issues in qualifying with the 88 McLaren. But I'm not including qualifying, because it's not what is counted in the overall success of a car. Also Rosberg was on pole and that's all that really matters, as long as one of the Mercedes is on pole, then they are still on par with the 88 record.

[CookinFlat6]

Interesting words from Aldo Costa about Merc, Ferrari, Lewis and Alonso

Aldo Costa, the Mercedes designer is currently on vacation in Italy. He recently caught up with old friend Turrini, and they discussed the change of scenery from the sun glazed region of Modena, to the rain of the English shires.

At Mercedes Aldo works with a group of twelve Italians, some of whom followed him from Ferrari whilst others were recruited directly from University. All of whom are working on the 3 pointed star’s 2015 design. “It is normal for anyone in my position to be working on the new car. I will not be coming to any races apart from possibly Belgium or Monza as my priorities are different now. But I don’t see Ferrari as our challengers next year, Red Bull has shown an incredibly fast reaction to their problems”.

The recent furore over alleged Mercedes team orders and Hamilton’s claims the team favoured a German driver to win the German GP, Costa shrugs away. “At Mercedes, I can assure you that we do not have any preferences between Hamilton and Rosberg. It’s not in our interest. We have two extremely competitive drivers who focus on each race and our obligation is to provide identical machines.

As to Hungary, I know that our radio communications sounded bad to outsiders but it was logical. Nico was due to stop fairly soon but he was faster at that stage of the race which is why we asked Lewis to let him through. There were no ulterior motives or malice, trust me..”

Costa plays down the talk of Lewis being enticed away by McLaren and/or Mercedes preferring Alonso. “I d’on’t see why he would give up a team like ours. Certainly we wouldn’t have Alonso in the Mercedes. In the car, he is a great driver, but out of the car, he is inscrutable”.

That said, Costa and Alonso have history, but Aldo is quick to suggest the hatchet is burried, “I do not believe that after the 2011 Spanish GP he was out to get me – he was just enigmatic.” At the said race, Fernando was lapped and following the weekend, Costa fell on his sword.

“As to Ferrari, it doesn’t please me to see how they have fallen behind. I left many friends there so I’m not happy to see them in trouble. I loved working there and it pains me even if my departure was not elegant.”

However, Costa questions the wisdome of Ferrari placing certain personnel in their current roles. “Allison I met when he was at Ferrari working on the aerodynamic side and he is very good. He went elsewhere but it’s difficult to evaluate him as a technical director – I hope he does well. And Tombazis? Look I was dismissed because i was stifling his creativity, they had to allow his ‘free thinking’ and we can all see the results… no?”

It may have been Montezemolo’s decision to dismiss Aldo, but most certainly Domenicali would have fired the gun. Costa is philosophical, “I don’t resent Domenicali, we sometimes exchange text messages but Ferrari belongs in my past as to many others. I won’t be going back, I’m fine where I am…”

[What's Burning?]

5 major issues for Merc. Lewis' brakes and fire would both have been DNf's in a race.

I'm sure that there were probably issues in qualifying with the 88 McLaren. But I'm not including qualifying, because it's not what is counted in the overall success of a car. Also Rosberg was on pole and that's all that really matters, as long as one of the Mercedes is on pole, then they are still on par with the 88 record.

Two records matter, most wins in a season and highers win % in a season. Podiums means squat and poles mean a step above that since obviously the speed of the car is there but qualifying has a way of catching people out with weather and freak situations that are beyond anyone's control.

Merc have blown the % record, the only thing left is winning 17 races in a season and for that they can't drop a single one.

[Jabberwocky]

"inscrutable" nice word

[racechick]

Interesting words from Aldo Costa about Merc, Ferrari, Lewis and Alonso

Aldo Costa, the Mercedes designer is currently on vacation in Italy. He recently caught up with old friend Turrini, and they discussed the change of scenery from the sun glazed region of Modena, to the rain of the English shires.

At Mercedes Aldo works with a group of twelve Italians, some of whom followed him from Ferrari whilst others were recruited directly from University. All of whom are working on the 3 pointed star’s 2015 design. “It is normal for anyone in my position to be working on the new car. I will not be coming to any races apart from possibly Belgium or Monza as my priorities are different now. But I don’t see Ferrari as our challengers next year, Red Bull has shown an incredibly fast reaction to their problems”.

The recent furore over alleged Mercedes team orders and Hamilton’s claims the team favoured a German driver to win the German GP, Costa shrugs away. “At Mercedes, I can assure you that we do not have any preferences between Hamilton and Rosberg. It’s not in our interest. We have two extremely competitive drivers who focus on each race and our obligation is to provide identical machines.

As to Hungary, I know that our radio communications sounded bad to outsiders but it was logical. Nico was due to stop fairly soon but he was faster at that stage of the race which is why we asked Lewis to let him through. There were no ulterior motives or malice, trust me..”

Costa plays down the talk of Lewis being enticed away by McLaren and/or Mercedes preferring Alonso. “I d’on’t see why he would give up a team like ours. Certainly we wouldn’t have Alonso in the Mercedes. In the car, he is a great driver, but out of the car, he is inscrutable”.

That said, Costa and Alonso have history, but Aldo is quick to suggest the hatchet is burried, “I do not believe that after the 2011 Spanish GP he was out to get me – he was just enigmatic.” At the said race, Fernando was lapped and following the weekend, Costa fell on his sword.

“As to Ferrari, it doesn’t please me to see how they have fallen behind. I left many friends there so I’m not happy to see them in trouble. I loved working there and it pains me even if my departure was not elegant.”

However, Costa questions the wisdome of Ferrari placing certain personnel in their current roles. “Allison I met when he was at Ferrari working on the aerodynamic side and he is very good. He went elsewhere but it’s difficult to evaluate him as a technical director – I hope he does well. And Tombazis? Look I was dismissed because i was stifling his creativity, they had to allow his ‘free thinking’ and we can all see the results… no?”

It may have been Montezemolo’s decision to dismiss Aldo, but most certainly Domenicali would have fired the gun. Costa is philosophical, “I don’t resent Domenicali, we sometimes exchange text messages but Ferrari belongs in my past as to many others. I won’t be going back, I’m fine where I am…”

There are some very interesting views in there! .........

The 'not having Alonso in a Mercedes'

The Tombazis stuff

The large amount of Italians working at Merc...didn't know that.

Good to hear him reassert the parity the drivers receive. But isn't he wrong with the claim that Lewis said the team favoured a German driver to win the German GP? Did Lewis say that? A lot of people said it and Lewis may have but the accusation wasn't against the team, it was against whoever failed to deploy the safety car, that was what screwed Lewis and saved Nico's bacon. The team did all they could for Lewis by pitting him immediately when the safety car SHOULD have been deployed, it was great quick thinking! So I don't get why Aldo is saying ' Hamilton's claims' unless he's been misquoted. Am I missing something here?

[CookinFlat6]

Yeah, the Hamilton quote sounds like a translation error, probably meant the popular opinion.

He doesnt seem to rate Allinson much as Chief Technical person, which makes sense because Allinsons strength was aero. Maybe Ferrari have forgotten that this is an era of mechanical and power delivery and not aero. At least thats what Newey says. Promoting Fry from Mclaren didnt work out too well either

[CookinFlat6]

"inscrutable" nice word

much more elegant than 2 faced, backstabber or devious schemer

[sagi58]

"inscrutable" nice word

Agreed!! It describes one who is enigmatic, cryptic, deep, mysterious!

[Hammer278]

"inscrutable" nice word

Agreed!! It describes one who is enigmatic, cryptic, deep, mysterious!

Yes, this sounds plausible....which is why Costa is saying Mercedes wouldn't want him.