Last year, Mercedes finished a solid, if unspectacular, fourth in the constructors championship.
They would of wanted to be further up the grid, but for a first season in their comeback, it was a respectable effort. The 2011 season was meant to be the big step up for the team.
Testing pace before the season was fairly poor with the car seeming off the pace once again. However, they placed a load of updates on the car and in the last session when Michael Schumacher went faster than anyone else.
This performance at the final test gave hope to the team and the driver combination of Schumacher and Rosberg meant that they had an experienced driver line up.
Everything looked promising for the the start of the season with the team looking to beat Mclaren (a team who's test pace was dreadful) and put a serious challenge to Red Bull and Ferrari.
But in the two races so far, they have gone backwards done the grid rather than moving up. Red Bull are still the class of the field, with Mclaren just behind, being the two strongest teams currently on the grid.
Just behind them are Ferrari who haven't quite got the most of their package yet and Renault who are doing brilliantly so far.
Currently, Mercedes have lost their fourth position to Renault and are falling more in to the midfield. At the last race in Malaysia, Schumacher ended up locked in a battle with Kobayashi for most of the race (very enjoyable duel as well) with Rosberg further back having a duel with Alguesuari.
Mercedes current pace is putting them back with Force India, Toro Rosso, Williams and Sauber.
So, what is the problem that Mercedes has?
Why are they going backwards instead of forward?
One of the main problems seems to be a lack aerodynamic grip produced by the car. If you saw the Malaysian race, you would of seen Schumacher get off to a great start and then heading into Turns 5 and 6 saw one of the Ferrari's blast past.
Schumacher had little confidence going into those corners that the Mercedes would make it.
The top teams are leading something of a revolution at the back of their cars. The Red Bull cars in particular are known produce masses of down force at the back of their cars.
Mercedes are perhaps lacking in these innovations meaning their car isn't able to take corners at the speeds that the front teams can.
It is believed that they are having issues with DRS on their car. It has been said that once the DRS has been deployed it doesn't return back into the proper position.
This could account for the problems, as if the wing is not returning to its proper position then there will be a severe down force loss.
Now, I am well aware that in Australia, they didn't get the best of luck with both drivers being taken out by other drivers. However, in qualifying in Australia, it became clear that once again they are not in the best of shape.
Questions remain over Michael Schumacher and these don't seem to be going away. To qualify in 11th twice in the first two races was not part of the plan.
Whether Schumacher remains at Mercedes is unknown and there is a lot of speculation about his place.
What should Mercedes do?
No comments:
Post a Comment