Michael Schumacher starts to build his team
Michael Schumacher put on a much better show in Barcelona than he’s managed elsewhere this season, but the important difference is that Mercedes have upgraded the car. It seems to suit Michael Schumacher much better although I wonder if Nico Rosberg will want the old spec back.
While speculation around Schumacher’s performance has been focusing on whether he’s up to it and not always the type of car that he’s driving it seems that he does need a particular setup to be at his best. Apparently the new spec has a longer wheel base and a different weight distribution. It would make the car more stable though it seems only Michael Schumacher can make it work to it’s best and I’m sure that’s the way he would have liked it. It seems that he has the ear of the engineers already – what else could we see in the pipeline?
If this is the way of things and Rosberg is now going to struggle – it’s not clear that he didn’t just have a bad weekend and he certainly had some bad luck – it’s not great news for him or the spectator. Rosberg was making some brave calls and getting results from them in the first few races of the year.
It seems that Mercedes are making progress on the car but that they have made it sideways, giving Michael Schumacher a car that he can drive at the same speed Rosberg could drive it rather than working on the ultimate pace. If that is the case then they may have already lost touch with the faster cars this year. With McLaren moving forward and Red Bull seemingly untouchable they will need some fast development to come anywhere close.
The next few races will show whether we’ve seen a Schumacher resurgence or the slow sure domination of the team but whatever the reason at least Schumacher is back on form.
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