Quote:
Originally Posted by red 928
When Schumi went to Ferrari the car was junk.
He was known to be in the garage past 10 pm working
with the mechanics trying to fix the car.
Just him and the mechanics.
Same when he went to Mercedes,
he helped fix the car that created the appearance
that Hamilton was all that.
There was one other very important
common denominator ....
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I hear you but I think that was more to bond with the guys and curry favor with the team, than to "redesign" a car. I don't think Lewis staying in the garage till midnight in his parachute pants will help in any way to resign a flawed Aero concept. It's not like he's gonna help design or glue new sidepods on, or blow on the floor to see if the car porpoises less ;-) Same with Lauda, he was a great driver and a no BS leader of sorts but I sincerely doubt either of those guys knew anythign about modern aero calculations...
To me the bottom line is: the curent F1 rules/spending limits/tokens favor getting it right the first time and incrementally improve that concept each year. When Mercedes did their new engine with split turbo thingamabob, they probably got 2-3 WC out of it and kept winning after that because they had a leg up and it took forever to catch them up.
This time - another big rule change, they went with "bottom feeder flat fish sidepods" and lost. Badly. And now they are kinda F$$%ed. They will likely be behind for 2 more seasons unless they pull out a miracle concept out of their....collective genius. I am actually impressed Management there decided to nip this in the bud now. Could be smart to revert to a 2y ago design philosophy real quick...
Meanwhile Redbull is not standing still and will refine their excellent aero (without Max hanging out with the mechanics) - though their penalties in wind tunnel time are giving Aston and Ferrari *some* hope for next year.