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[racechick]

From Nico

I ran our old exhaust system in qualifying today as part of our evaluation programme for next year. We had already used it yesterday and made the decision to continue for the rest of the weekend to help with the learning process.

Interesting stuff indeed, bodes well for next year especially as MS out qualified both Ferraris and a Mclaren

Although the McLaren did break down...

Had Jenson been a bit higher up when it broke down instead of about 7th, so that he still finished in the top ten, would they have been able to mend the car for Q3 or was it too broken?

[LewEngBridewell]

From Nico

I ran our old exhaust system in qualifying today as part of our evaluation programme for next year. We had already used it yesterday and made the decision to continue for the rest of the weekend to help with the learning process.

Interesting stuff indeed, bodes well for next year especially as MS out qualified both Ferraris and a Mclaren

Although the McLaren did break down...

Had Jenson been a bit higher up when it broke down instead of about 7th, so that he still finished in the top ten, would they have been able to mend the car for Q3 or was it too broken?

I'm not sure, actually. The BBC Highlights didn't go tremendously in-depth.

7,000th comment!

[CookinFlat6]

And the Mercs did not Lew, you gotta admit this is significant however one slices it

[CookinFlat6]

From Nico

I ran our old exhaust system in qualifying today as part of our evaluation programme for next year. We had already used it yesterday and made the decision to continue for the rest of the weekend to help with the learning process.

Interesting stuff indeed, bodes well for next year especially as MS out qualified both Ferraris and a Mclaren

Although the McLaren did break down...

Had Jenson been a bit higher up when it broke down instead of about 7th, so that he still finished in the top ten, would they have been able to mend the car for Q3 or was it too broken?

Whitmarsh was still saying at the end of quali that he wasnt sure what it was, IIRC

[Hammer278]

From Nico

I ran our old exhaust system in qualifying today as part of our evaluation programme for next year. We had already used it yesterday and made the decision to continue for the rest of the weekend to help with the learning process.

Interesting stuff indeed, bodes well for next year especially as MS out qualified both Ferraris and a Mclaren

Although the McLaren did break down...

Had Jenson been a bit higher up when it broke down instead of about 7th, so that he still finished in the top ten, would they have been able to mend the car for Q3 or was it too broken?

Whitmarsh was still saying at the end of quali that he wasnt sure what it was, IIRC

They still don't know exactly what happened to Lewis' car in Abu Dhabi either. Truly a team which is getting increasingly lost, Lewis picked a good time to GTFO.

[zpetrov]

I know this topic has been touched on in various threads, but I think it deserves a good, solid summary. Here are the facts:

- Merc has failed to score points in 5 consecutive races now
- Only 3 teams have failed to score points in the last 5 races: HRT, Caterham, and Marussia
- Over the course of the season only 4 teams have gone 5 races without a single point: HRT, Caterham, Marussia, and Toro Rosso

- In the 2nd half of the season (since GBR) Sauber has collected almost 30 points more than Merc: 38 for Merc, 64 for Sauber
- In the same time period, Force India has collected 55 points
- Lotus, who are just ahead of Merc in the standings, have 158 points in that time period...

Some will say Merc just gave up and started working on next year's car. But that doesn't hold water for many reasons.

First, the collapse didn't start at the end of the season. It started midway, when Merc was still well-positioned to take a crack at the Top 3, when Hamilton was not yet a concrete part of their plans, and when Nico Rosberg was only 2 races removed from his last podium.

Consider the 4 races in the middle-ish of the year: GBR, Germany, Hungary, Belgium. There is no reason for any team to give up anything in those races but in those races Merc:

- Collected just 20 points
- Saw Lotus pick up 61 points more than them
- Got both drivers into points-scoring positions just once
- Were outperformed once each by Sauber, Force India, AND Williams

- In the 8 races prior to GBR, Merc picked up more points than Lotus 3 times
- In the 11 races starting with GBR, Merc has picked up more points than Lotus just once

- In the 8 races prior to GBR, Merc was outperformed by Force India just ONCE
- In the 11 races starting with GBR, Force India picked up more points than Merc in 7 different races

Clearly something happened after Valencia. It wasn't them quitting on this season and focusing on next season. No team quits 8 races into the season, especially when they've gotten a win in those 8 races.

They couldn't solve their mechanical issues, they couldn't keep up with the development race, and they just lost control of their races. That's just hard to argue with. It wasn't them quitting; they just flat-out haven't done a good job.

Is this a mulligan, a bad season from a good team, or is it symptomatic of structural problems?

[vlad]

Well, this is what we know for sure. In the next season they will qualify good in Australia, maybe even get a podium, will do great both in Malaysia and Especially in China. But, what happens after that? Hamilton, like Vettel, is a monster qualifier and he can get the car in a good position, but the problem for them, through the entire season, was to keep the car well positioned. It is strange, but maybe they're just trying to sacrifice this season and do well in the next one, or the one after that...

[Hammer278]

More a case of starting the season very strong and then going down a path which got them completely lost - DDRS, and they pressed the pause button to look at where things went wrong to see how to handle 2013 better.

As Brawn and Rosberg said, some key people only joined the team this year after car was built and the focus is on winning championships by having everything in place to take on the development challenge through an entire season.

I'm glad they've quit on this year...I mean, what's better than a race win or a pole position? A Championship, which was out of their reckoning by half way in the season. The chassis has something fundamentally wrong with it, as it eats up the tyres like nothing else...and isn't a great foundation to continue developments with.

I have real good feelings about 2013 though, Brawn isn't to be f**ked around with...and to convince Lewis to move over, he's seen what they have planned for next year and it's turned his head to join them. Only 2013 can tell us what it is.

[vlad]

Brawn and Newey are actually aliens, from another galaxy, but shhh, don't tell anyone.

[What's Burning?]

Outside of Mercedes leadership we will never know... my thought is that they've realized a fundamental mistake with the car that they were not going to be able to develop or overcome hence the let's made the best of it attitude we seem to be seeing. All other indications are of a regrouping, from hiring talent to dedicating themselves to F1 to actually putting money where their mouth is and hiring Lewis.

In life you learn a hell of a lot more by doing something wrong than you do by doing something right, so we'll have to wait till 2013 to get some type of glimpse into what happened this year.

[scotty]

Mercedes flatter to deceive on saturdays as per usual then.

[racechick]

Well Rosberg didn't flatter on Sat. They were evaluating exhausts, they had different ones on. It was an abysmal performance, but as has been said, this years car is history.

[LewEngBridewell]

Such a shame for Schumacher to bow out in such embarrassing style. I hope he drags that useless thing to a decent result next week.

[scotty]

Such a shame for Schumacher to bow out in such embarrassing style. I hope he drags that useless thing to a decent result next week.

I hope so too, just for old times sake. Mercedes have (save for a couple of exceptions) been embarassing since the Pirelli switch.

[LewEngBridewell]

Such a shame for Schumacher to bow out in such embarrassing style. I hope he drags that useless thing to a decent result next week.

I hope so too, just for old times sake. Mercedes have (save for a couple of exceptions) been embarassing since the Pirelli switch.

Mercedes have (save for a couple of exceptions) been embarassing since day 1.