They can't make the first test and have Alf Garnett and Britney driving for them. Can they come close to the Brawn days when JB had to wash his own pants?

I don't think so. This is going nowhere fast.

Ozzie,

Thanks for your endorsement, we are looking much forward to your next post.

sessions

Haug justifies late Mercedes GP launch




Feb.1 (GMM) Mercedes GP will not stun the Formula 1 world with a secret 2012 innovation, insists motorsport boss Norbert Haug.

The German marque’s competition boss is referring to the fact that the Brackley based team is holding back its new car – the W03 – until the second test of the forthcoming winter pre-season period.

Most other teams will unveil their cars at Jerez early next week, leading some experts to surmise that Mercedes must be holding back a secret innovation so that its rivals have less time to copy it.

But Haug insists there is no “sensational reason” for the decision.

“Last year we were very early and we paid for it by having a fairly unsophisticated car,” the German is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“Now we have set a development schedule so that we can work on any problems before they happen,” added Haug.

He said the decision to delay a new car is common among the top teams.

“Red Bull and McLaren have done it (in the past) as well,” insisted Haug.

At Jerez next week, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg will drive the 2011 car, fitted with some development components.

“But there is nothing spectacular,” warned Haug.

Much more spectacular could be McLaren’s new model, with a team member saying on Tuesday that in some areas the MP4-27 skirts close to the regulations.

“Lots of talk about McLaren’s radical new car and dramatic, visible, design tweaks,” said Daily Mirror correspondent Byron Young on Twitter.

The same team member, McLaren Applied Technologies managing director Geoff McGrath, also suggested Sebastian Vettel drove better than Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton in 2011, before the story was removed from a popular British website.

The Mirror’s Young added: “McLaren PR been doing some behind-the-scenes firefighting in the build-up to the car launch (on) Wednesday. Hope the car’s as good as the PR moves.”

YALLAF1.COM

Lets hope they learn from the mistakes in the past.

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The Brawn turned up with a Merc engine bolted in the back and was quick out of the box. That was some massive achievement from this very team. What's going on here? Too much boardroom I think and not enough genius.

Norbert Haug IS the problem. He always has been. He always will be. So long as he is there, Mercedes will never, ever succeed. Ever. I don't care if they throw a trillion dollars at the team, they will still fail.

There. I've said it. But don't be surprised. I said the same thing about him when he was spouting all of his BS at McLaren.

The man is an ignoramus of BIBLICAL proportion. How he still has a job is anybody's guess. He's just terrible. I'm SO glad he's gone.

I sleep better nights. I really and truly do.

If you put me in charge of Mercedes right now, you would see an improvement like never before. You would shoot right to the top, quite literally, overnight.

Here's how I would do it:

Me: Guys...what the hell is wrong with out car?
Them: Well, there's this, and that, then the other, then this and that and finally we have that to deal with.

Me: FIX THE DAMN THING! Beg, borrow, steal, murder, I don't give a damn. FIX IT!!! NOW!!!

It's just that simple.

But what Norbert does is:

Norbert: What's wrong with the car?
Them: Well, we have this, and that. Then there is this to deal with and that on top of it all.

Norbert: OK, I will form a plan for dealing with the first this by the end of next week. I'll tackle the first that in three weeks when I get back from my seminar on 'how to be more annoying' in China.

That's how he rolls. That's how I roll.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2012 21:48 by Parminio_USA.

can you possibly believe that? is that a joke post?

It's what he does. It's what he's ALWAYS done. It's why every other team that uses his engines whips his ass. It's why the McLaren 12 is sold out and has a waiting list a mile long when they can't give those POS Merc-Mc's away for anything.

Norbert simply can't say, "Do what it takes to make it right." He does NOT have, nor has he EVER had, that ability.

He micro manages every aspect of everything to the point that it's impossible to make anything work.

He even went so far as to say that Mercedes didn't have an engine problem when we blew up 9 engines in 3 races.

He's a politician with a control freak problem. How else do you explain that everybody using Mercedes engines WITHOUT HIM AROUND does BETTER THAN HE DOES with the FULL POWER OF MERCEDES BEHIND HIM?

Are you really that stupid? Can you NOT see that?

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@Parm

Even if half of what you think of Haug is true. It would still hurt the team. But i never thought he was the reason why MGP was struggling. Interesting.

I cant really say anything, coz i dont know much about Haug. Or his ability. Wasnt he at Macca when Mika won the titles??

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so ross brawn sits by and does not do or control anything whatsoever at MGP?

Quote:

Timba7
Wasnt he at Macca when Mika won the titles??

Yes and no. He worked for Mercedes at the time, but he had no control over McLaren's engines or design. Mercedes at that time had VERY little control over anything. The engines were still done at Ilmore and had nothing to do with Mercedes per se.

It wasn't until later when Mercedes bought up a 40% stake that all of a sudden EVERYTHING went south. The car started floundering, the systems went south and we had our worst seasons EVER IN OUR HISTORY. Haug was DIRECTLY responsible for that. He was also directly responsible for the downfall of the McLaren brand. That is, in LARGE part, why Ron Dennis left to control the McLaren brand all by his lonesome and led them to get rid of Mercedes.

They don't talk about that out in the world. They want to play nice and not step on toes and hurt stock prices...because both would suffer, of course.

But all you have to do is this: Look at what happened to McLaren on Haug's watch. Now look at what we're doing now that he's gone. THEN look at what Brawn did. Now look at what they're doing since Haug has been there.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.

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How do you explain Hamilton's championship in '08 and Macca's near miss in '07 (which was down to Ron Dennis and not Haug IMHO)?

The engines are still the strongest on the grid. There is nothing wrong with Haug. The problem with Merc now and with Macca back when Kimi was there is lack of talent in the aero department. To me, that is where Merc fell short last year.

I think they have improved things as well as firmed up other areas on the engineering side. I am optimistic for this season.

So all the time we were blaming poor Kimi for being a car breaker, it was Haug who was responsible all along

A journalist doing an Engineers job. Last time something similar has happened is Luca B taking over at Ferrari ahead of Stepney. HR man doing an Engineers job. Fortunately the FIA made sure of the seasons outcome and Spygate was used as a smoke screen

We all know that Hamilton didn't win the title in '08, Ferrari gifted it to him with stupidity. Come on, guys...really.

We all also know that Kimi SHOULD have won a title. He personally threw it away by making FAR too many mistakes.

But coming close once in a decade and getting one gifted to you does NOT MEAN that you're doing a good job. If you think it does, maybe you need to work for Mercedes. Mediocrity, over-management and failure seem to be their status quo.

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conversely parmigi, perhaps it is you who should work for MB as you seem to have down pat everything that is wrong with the team and also the ability to run the team.

have you made the job application yet?

parm: (...)FIX IT!!! NOW!!!

mercedes engineers: hans, vy haven't vee thought of that?


regards tt

hi TT...did the pics arrive eventually after bouncing back?

Quote:

K1
conversely parmigi, perhaps it is you who should work for MB as you seem to have down pat everything that is wrong with the team and also the ability to run the team.
have you made the job application yet?

laffin at this post ... kenji still finds wrong in RBR after winning back to back championships.

Though I regress, kenji is just venting because she can.

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“God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia.” Russell Crowe



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2012 08:57 by phatjack.

I predict a fantastic 2012 for MGP. We are among the top 11 or 12 teams on the grid. We have massive strength in depth. We are going to win this year!

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Well done Lewis. New driver, new era.

Other sites ran you off again?

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Come on Herman it's a new season and a new approach. It's time to scratch that noggin and offer up some of that F1 knowledge rather than starting again with negative sarcasm. You know where that ends up.
Hey, we could be better, the same or worse, but until the facts play out lets all give MGP a little positive input.

sessions

You are missing the point Parm. You bash Haug. What I am saying is the car/engine was good enough for two championships...one they got...one they let slip away.

Nonetheless, I see a much better season ahead for Merc.

Well now that they have seen the RB8 I guess they will actually start work on the 2012 car.

LOL

I said the same thing about Ferrari and their delaying their launch days back.

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Well, to an extent Parm is right, things do take different routes when the leaders change. We had first hand experience of how the same team performed under different leaders. One (the earlier guy) never heard the team, and the latter sat, listened and encouraged solutions, and the difference is a whopping million in profit with the new guy in just a year.

If Haug is the culprit, well, merc is definitely going further south....may be to the south pole.

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Cricket India

I wonder what Merc are testing at Jerez. Maybe some new KERS or engine stuff?

Hard to say. They may well not be testing anything at all but the new tires.

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Didn't do them a lot of good then.

Plenty of experts on board though.

My dad always said the definition of an expert was a has-been drip under pressure.

Nice one Merc. Classy drive by Nico.

So, we know the car is a top qualifier. If, if, if Merc has got a handle on the tyre issue then......

You have to say that Schumi and Nico will be fighting Lewis and Jenson for the title. Maybe Vettel as well.

I really hope they have. I would like to see Nico do well and would be nice to see the old red devil win another race again after all the years I spent booing him.

Bring it on. I think after China, a lot of people are re-appraising the threat of Mercedes in 2012. We'll see what happens in the traditional Bahrain borefest.

Heh, maybe Parm was truly wrong. He put everything that went south at Macca on Haugs fault. Well here we are Haug drinking the champagne on the top step.

Question is why did Macca loose its reliability during Kimi days? It all comes down to Stepneygate once again. Stepney had partner in the crime. And he was working at Macca.

Why Macca arise from the problems... hint, the person wasnt working for Macca anymore. Well might be that he was still in the background but surely not involved in action anymore.

Coughlan. Now that Step & Cough are gone, suddenly Macca and Ferrari has reliability like Mika & Schumi days. No reliability problems what so ever.

So Parm. ReBuild your theory. Haug RULES!!

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Maaca had bad reliability because of Beryllium, they had invested a lot into their engines using that, and all of a sudden it was banned, and they were left lacking power.

The only way to quickly make some of this power defect up is to run tighter margins, push boundaries, and that leads to unreliability.

Tamotu it's typical FIA, one team gets a lead and they quickly even it out. [Beryllium was banned after if I'm not mistaken Ferrari complained] This year if MGP had started to build a gap with this DDRS they would have definitely banned it. The way I see it the only reason they let it pass was coz it would suit Bernie to have MGP take a few wins, Nico rise up to a new title challenger [fresh blood on the top step] and maybe Michael back on a podium or a win so that Bernie can keep or gain a few more audiences for his GP's.

Mercedes speculated to lose largest investor



The largest investor in Mercedes' parent company Daimler has been speculated to sell its shareholdings in the German manufacturer, including its Formula 1 team.

Manager Magazin cited sources from Daimler reporting that the pull out by the investors from Abu Dhabi, Aabar, was currently under negotiations. The extraction is not only from its stake in the luxury road car manufacturer and the F1 squad but also electric car maker Tesla, which is co-owned Daimler and Toyota.

"What I find so interesting is that they are considering a complete and total withdrawal from everything connected to Daimler," Adam Hull, an analyst at banking group WestLB, was quoted saying by Reuters. "Which does suggest there were strategic differences with management behind the scenes."

Aabar, which has been "mulling an exit for some time now", currently holds roughly nine percent stake in the business.

A Daimler spokesman however denied any knowledge about the deal as did Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug.

"I just hear the speculation and read the speculation. Nothing more," Haug dismissed it. "Nothing more to say."

The Mercedes F1 team has been struggling since it returned to the sport and only recently registered its first win as an independent constructor at the Chinese Grand Prix.

"Daimler spends less than half the sum on Formula 1 than it did five years ago and we have nevertheless managed to build a winning team," Haug had said shortly after the triumph in Shanghai. "The victory on Sunday will only push us to get even better."

Moreover, most of the F1 teams have signed onto a new deal - the current agreement for which expires at the end of the year - that will govern the series until 2020. But Mercedes has been holding out for more money.

The Concorde Agreement is a confidential arrangement between F1 management, teams and other stakeholders that outlines the commercial terms for participation.

Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone said he has met with Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche to discuss the Concorde Agreement, which Mercedes had refused to sign, casting doubts about its future in F1 post 2012.

Ecclestone told the German magazine ‘Auto, motor und sport’ he can recognize little racing history that would justify a bigger bonus for Mercedes.

"The team has to know what they want to do. They've had the contract proposal for a month, ready to be signed," Ecclestone told the magazine.

He added that Mercedes was "very important" for F1, but noted that the German carmaker is only in its third season racing under its own name.

"And they have not won the world championship yet," Ecclestone said.

Having once started as Tyrrell, the team changed owners and its name four times.

"I don't see much history in this team," the 81-year-old billionaire pointed out.

Source: F1Pulse.com

Ecclestone and Brawn in dispute over Concorde Agreement



F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone recently confirmed he is at loggerheads with Mercedes over the next Concorde Agreement.

But at the same time, he insisted that the Stuttgart marque is “very important to Formula 1. I have always supported them and I will always,” he is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

Indeed, Mercedes has its own and newly-winning works team, powers the marquee McLaren outfit, and also supplies engines to Force India.

Ecclestone’s dispute is with fellow Englishman Ross Brawn, who is the Brackley based Mercedes GP team’s principal.

“I have spoken to the team manager (Brawn) about it (the dispute) and he seems to believe that the team has won a few world titles and about 80 races since the Tyrrell days,” said the 81-year-old.

Sport Bild reports that Ecclestone is refusing to give in to Brawn’s demands for extra Concorde Agreement entitlements for past title successes and history.

The magazine said the relationship has become so intense that Ecclestone has even refused to give a joint interview with Brawn.

“He (Brawn) was never very nice to me,” the F1 ‘supremo’ is quoted as saying.

The German report said there is a risk Mercedes will, as a result of the ‘ice age’ between the British duo, pull the plug on its entire F1 involvement.

Source: F1Zone.net