Tag Archives: mercedes

Testing for the new season begins

The 2011 began in Valencia as the teams set out to prove that their news cars are up to speed. Some teams opted to miss this first test entirely or run their old car, most notable of these was McLaren. While some may criticise that decision it didn’t seem to affect Red Bull last year who didn’t even attend the first test.
Robert Kubica ended the last day fastest, showing that the Renault may yet have some pace this year, though he may not get to drive it again due to his accident. The Red Bulls seems to be putting it some solid runs but the Mercedes car still doesn’t seem to have much pace compared. The picture is far from clear in testing though with different fuel loads run lengths and testing programmes at play. We’ve also yet to see some of the new cars for comparison.
Testing continues this week [...]

Full year report: Mercedes

Mercedes bought the Brawn team and convinced Michael Schumacher to return to F1 but have achieved little else. They have been the fourth best team on the grid for most of the season and they’ll be disappointed by that. Ross Brawn will be pushing hard to improve things for next year but it remains to be seen whether they can build something that can challenge the other teams. They seem to have got bogged down in the midfield to many times this year, whether that is because the car is hard to use in passing or whether it is just a lack of pace we’ll never know.
Nico Rosberg has had an impressive season, he has continually bettered Michael Schumacher and has impressed the team. That said he hasn’t set the world on fire, but that could be the car too. He needs to beat Schumacher in 2011 too if [...]

Full year report: McLaren

McLaren have had a solid if not exceptional season, they have won races and at the beginning showed pace that would have worried Red Bull. Their challenge faded though as they haven’t managed to keep up with the development at either Red Bull or Ferrari, which is unlike McLaren.
Jensen Button has proven that he isn’t the push over that so many people thought he would be and that Lewis Hamilton hasn’t had it all his own way, he has performed solidly all season though he has found himself in positions where he’s had to take the risky option – however it has paid off for him this year. He’ll be hoping that next year McLaren will build a car that is more predictable as unlike Lewis he  finds it hard to cope with an unstable car.
Lewis Hamilton’s season has shown flashes of brilliance with flashes of stupidity, without some of [...]

Ferrari take the title by the horns as Red Bull implode

Korea was always going to be an odd event, the track wasn’t finished, the teams knew nothing about the surface and it had the specter of rain. What rain it was too, apart from causing the race start to be delayed an hour it meant that no one out there was confident – apart it seemed from Lewis Hamilton. Webber slipped in the conditions and Vettel’s car let him down again as Alonso was left to pick up the pieces and take a lead in the drivers championship.
The two McLaren drivers have almost ruled themselves out of the hunt now with fourth and twelfth and given the pace of their car which leaves the title race to Webber, Vettel, and Alonso. With Brazil and Abu Dhabi to come (both won by Red Bull last year) Webber must being feeling confident, though in the past Ferrari have held the upper hand [...]