2010 F1 season preview: Mercedes

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Mercedes' last works F1 team was a dominant force in the 1950s

They’re the reigning constructors’ championships and they’ve hired the most successful F1 driver ever. Surely all Mercedes have to do on their return to F1 is show up and collect the titles?

It might not be quite as straightforward as that, but the title holders have a very strong hand heading into 2010.

Car design

When Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche introduced his new team at the beginning of the year he played down expectations, telling the press: “We are a new team and we will need time.”

But although the changes at the team run deeper than a new name and a lick of paint, this is at heart the same squad which won last year’s championship. Drivers aside, they enjoy continuity in many important areas.

And, most significantly, the strength of the BGP001 last year meant they were able to shift resources to its successor – the W01 – earlier than planned.

Despite that the W01 did not strike fear into the hearts of rivals teams on its maiden run the way the BGP001 did. It’s generally been a few tenths off the Ferrari/McLaren pace. Until the last few days of the Barcelona test the team were playing down hopes of early wins.

Promising signs of progress late in the final test caused them to revise those conservative predictions. The team chose not to run its Bahrain-specification aerodynamic testing, leading to rumours they have something radical planned for the car’s diffuser.

Driver line-up

Did Nico Rosberg have even the slightest inkling he was going to end up driving alongside Michael Schumacher this year? If not, would he have taken up what must surely be one of the hardest jobs in F1?

Regardless, Rosberg faces the unenviable challenge of joining forces with someone who has a reputation for dominating his team mates both on and off the track. Schumacher started by taking Rosberg’s race number off him – strictly for reasons of superstition, you understand…

It never pays to underestimate the uncompromising genius of Michael Schumacher. I doubt the passage of three years will have blunted his speed, his desire to win or his willingness to push the rules to the limit and beyond.

There are only two serious questions over the seven-times champion’s ability to compete. The first is his motivation, which clearly waned at the end of 2006 when he originally retired, as Ross Brawn himself admitted last week.

The second his how well his injured neck has healed since it thwarted his bid to return last year. In terms of his general fitness, he looked in great shape when I saw him at the Jerez and Barcelona tests. He gave interviews mere minutes after emerging from the car, having put over 100 laps on it in a day, and looked fit and fresh as ever.

Strengths

Two names: Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher. They are one of the most effective race-winning combinations the sport has ever seen. You can bet they’ll have already sussed out every strategic nuance arising from the ban on refuelling and the new qualifying tyre rule.

The cosmetic transformation – and the lack of a number one on the car – makes it easy to overlook that this team are the reigning constructors’ champions.

That Mercedes decided to take over Brawn GP and not some other outfit says everything you need to know about the quality of their staff and infrastructure. When Mercedes put their name to a works team they expect nothing less than championship success – it’s what they got with their Grand Prix outfit in the 1950s and their sports car team in the 1980s and 1990s.

Weaknesses

On paper, there appear to be few chinks in Mercedes’ armour. Should Schumacher’s return falter, which is a risk, a Rosberg-Nick Heidfeld line-up would be a much weaker substitute.

Aside from that, and the concern their dull paint job will be hard to spot on an overcast day, Mercedes’ biggest worry must be that they’ll face much stronger opposition this year than they did as Brawn in 2009.

Poll: championship position

Yesterday we ranked where McLaren will finish in the contructors’ championship – now its Mercedes’ turn. Cast your vote below:

Where will Mercedes finish in the 2010 Constructors' Championship?

  • 13th (0%)
  • 12th (0%)
  • 11th (0%)
  • 10th (0%)
  • 9th (0%)
  • 8th (0%)
  • 7th (0%)
  • 6th (0%)
  • 5th (3%)
  • 4th (29%)
  • 3rd (34%)
  • 2nd (18%)
  • 1st (15%)

Total Voters: 1,702

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2010 F1 season

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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36 comments on “2010 F1 season preview: Mercedes”

  1. great article keith, i voted 3rd behind Ferrari and Mclaren

    1. Same here.

      I feel very sorry for Nico who many says is just good a driver as Lewis, with 4 year at Williams with not good cars finally he got a chance to revel his potential he ends up pairing with Schumacher.

  2. 4th until I see what they got at bahrain if the upgrades they bring are what they say they are they could challenge Red Bull, Ferrari.

  3. Well, I have to say I’m uncertain about Mercedes, in 09 they managed to improve their car by about a second, on essentially scraps of cash thown to them by virgin, an the money left to them by Honda.

    But they must learn their lessons this year, it is very worriying to hear about front tyre heating troubles, surley that problem should have been solved by now. I imagine Mercedes will be a dominant force in f1 for a long time, an I back Michael for one more championship I just get the feeling he knows he’s got it in him, but I don’t see them wining this year, the continuity wasn’t great enough and the W01 didn’t have a stable enough enviroment to grow.

    That said I add the ever presant caveat of what do I know and mayve with the might of Mercedes behind them they’ll be able to develop the car well. An Brawn will prevent irritaiting BMW/Toyota style corpratism infecting the racing operation. So, I vote 3rd. Don’t see them falling below 4th. I reckon they’ll be fighting Redbull for 3rd place. Start going for the constructors next year hmm.

  4. Don’t want to nit pick but Brawn are the current champions. It is as much Mercedes as last years was Hondas.

  5. The probability of mercedes winning the WDC should not be under estimated…having in mind you have ROSS BRAWN AND schumacher teaming up.These two minds and the power of the mercedes brand and racing pedigree is sure enough pointer.
    We dont know yet what the so called upgrade with the yet unseen “super difuser” will do at BAHRAIN…Dont be surprised if mercedes win the fisrt five races this season…

  6. 2nd. I think Rosberg will do great, maybe not outscore Schumi but he will be close. And more, he will learn from Michael not to make mistakes (crossing over the pitlane and loose a solid second place). Beacuse there is no margin for error anymore. But he will do it. I can see Michael on the podium in every race this year.

  7. people say they might lose out in the development race, but lets not forget they now have lots of money coming from Mercedes-benz itself. i’m sure their finances are better than 2009 at least.

  8. A bit off topic but I was wondering where the W comes from in their model number, W01. I looked up past Silver Arrows, and they started with the W25.

    Can anyone enlighten an F1 newbie?

  9. W stands for Wagen. English translation : Car

    1. I thought is was for braWn.

      1. the W stands for ‘WINNER!’ Or maybe ‘Walkover’.

  10. For me they will be fourth, Ferrari third, red bull second and mclaren first.

  11. I put fourth. I think Vettel and Schumacher will score similarly but Webber willbe more consistent than Rosberg.

  12. I dont think Scumachers motivation waned in 2006, he was driving even more aggresively than he did between 2002-2005.

    Schumacher still needs to adapt to new cars with control tyres introduced in 2007 and no testing rule isnt gonna help. Although no testing rule also helped him to comeback in the first place.

    I dont think he will win that many races this year if he wins any. Mercedes looked like behind Mclaren and Ferrari and I suspect RedBull are slightly faster as well.

  13. 4th behind mclaren,red bull&ferrari,so the fight for championship will be betven ferrari&red bull,alonso&vettel

  14. I voted 4th. The way things seem to going the last thing a team needs is corporate meddling, it seems to do more harm than the extra funding does good!

    I’m a great admirer of Mercedes as a car but can not see any company board just letting Brawn get on with it.

    All the other top teams (including Ferrari because they only really exist to race) are now independent and will not have to play petty politics with their masters.

    The engine supply/power situation will be interesting though.

  15. as much as i like the team, the brains behind them (engineers, designers, tech team etc) that actually design and build the car – are the same team that built and stagnated a honda for 3 years after it was winning races.

    now they have another race winner, lets hope they’ve got some more tricks up their sleeves.

    1. I don’t know about the rest of the team, but Brawn came over to Honda for the 2008 season, meaning that his first year there oversaw a crap car, admitted the car was crap early on, and set about working on what would become the following year’s winning Brawn car.

  16. I voted 3rd. But I tip Schumi to win the WDC.

    Brawn and Schumacher can wring a win out of nowhere, they will definitely do well even if the car is not upto speed on some tracks.

    Can’t say the same about Rosberg. Among the top 8 drivers of top 4 teams, Rosberg seems to be the weakest, or best case, better than Webber.

    Mercedez should have opted for a MSC – Nick Heidfeld pairing. It would have been stronger.

    1. “Rosberg seems to be the weakest”

      He hasn’t had the car to show how good (or not) he is, so what makes you say that?

  17. When looking into the test times on http://f1numbers.wordpress.com/ I think that we have 6 cars very close together:
    McLaren, Mercedes, RedBull, Ferrari obviously but I think Williams and Sauber are right there as well.
    Toro Rosso just behind this pack.

  18. I voted 4th, they could bring something radical to Bahrain and blow everyone else away but I doubt it. As Mercedes they shouldn’t suffer from a lack of resources in the development race like Brawn did last year so they could well have the fastest cars during the season.

    But to do well in the Constructers’ Championship it is not just if you have the best car but the best driver line-up as well, and while I do not doubt that Schumacher can still do the business, I think overall although the Schumacher Rosberg combination is good I do not think it is not as strong as the other leading teams Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull which is the main reason I think they will finish 4th.

  19. 3rd. I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished ahead of that though thanks to Schumi and Brawn.
    They’ll beat Red Bull I think; RBR have the Renault engine which may be unreliable again and their drivers just don’t match up to Schumi. I like Vettel and he’s definately going to be right up there in the future but last year he made too many mistakes just fighting Webber, Button and Barrichello and the opposition now looks to be a lot tougher.
    As for Rosberg I do feel sorry for him but I don’t think he’s a top class driver. Last year I think he ran the risk of being overrated; Kazuki didn’t perform that well so it may have made Rosberg look better than he was and because Kazuki didn’t really push him we don’t know if he truly got everything out of the car. Rosberg may get his first win and perhaps be more like his father as a driver, maybe he’s even on Kubica’s level but I doubt he’s top tier (at least not yet).
    There’s alson the issue of when Schumi does eventually go -when he retires again not if his neck plays up-and they are on the hunt for a driver. Vettel will be in Merc’s sights and for various reasons I could see Hamilton there too so Rosberg may become known for the drivers he partners more than anything else, perhaps sort of like Massa is.

  20. Is it just me or does anyone else think that mercedes should maybe hire a few more people back into the team.

    Last year Brawn dropped nearly half there staff due to lack of money. It was partly the contribution of those half that resulted in the big lead they had to begin with, and also it was partly the loss of those half that i believe resulted in the lack of development and ability to keep up with the others for the rest of the season.

    Now that brawn has mercedes money i feel they should maybe rehire some of the people they lost. As brawn himself did say that over winter they found it harded with some 350 people compared to the 750 they had last winter.

    I think it could be key in either helping the team catch others if behind or keeping ahead if in front.

  21. I can’t help but suspect Schumacher’s neck was a convenient excuse for not racing as a replacement for Massa at Ferrari as he probably was probably lined up for the Mercedes ride.

    1. That or he didn’t want to drive such a terrible car.

  22. CovertGiblets
    3rd March 2010, 13:11

    I don’t believe that Schumacher will be allowed to dominate on the track as he has in the past. Hamilton, Alonso, Webber & Kobayashi just won’t capitulate to his aggressive style. It’ll be interesting to see what happens the first time he comes across one of these drivers.

    Don’t be too surprised if he doesn’t make it to the end of the season either.

    Also look out for Vettel spending an awful lot of time following Schumacher at those races he fails to out qualify him in. I’m yet to be convinced that Vettel can race. No doubt he’s fast when out in front. But can he actually race?

    I voted for Mercedes to finish third, behind McLaren and Ferrari.

  23. sorry…Schumacher who?…Mercades …what…?

    the only reason brawn did so well last year was cos they had a double diffuser first

    what happened after that? oh yer…they nearly lost the championship

    mclaren shoulda won 07 but he played second fiddle to alonso for the toooooo many races at the start,

    they won 08

    and a few more races and they coulda won 09

    BRING IT ON

    1. “the only reason brawn did so well last year was cos they had a double diffuser first”
      You mean, they had the brains to see a loop whole, and then pointed it out to the FIA and overtacking working group, and implement it into their design from the start whilst others were left scrambling?

      “what happened after that? oh yer…they nearly lost the championship” Yes it was indeed closer than the opening round suggested it would be. But the car that was designed under honda was developed under Brawn, and it would be safe to say they had differnet budgets. Brawn realised that they would be out developed, and took a calculated risk to switch to this years car, with the belief that money would follow from their results – which it did as well. Oh, that, and they still won.

  24. I voted 1st Mercedes, brawn and schumi, Great engine and all that experience coupled together has to be a winner. I also hope Kamui kobayashi does well that guy was great in the last two races of last year.

  25. 6 people expect them to finish 13th! Fools, I voted 4th behind F,McL and RBR

  26. first , because inter team battles of the others will lead to a loss of championship points for their team. What will become of Massa vs Alonso , Button vs Hamilton? I see these as quite possibly hendering the other teams. I think with Brawn/Mercedes it will be handled in a different manner ;)

    The competition will be very close the year. Glad to see the return of Schumacher . Now let the games begin. basically 1 week to go.

  27. btw, I’m not sure if anyone’s noticed this yet, but Mercedes is going for their 5th consecutive win in F1, after in 1955, Fangio won at Spa and Zandvoort, Moss won at Aintree and Fangio finished the season with a win at Monza.

  28. I wonder what percent of the car is Honda and similarly Mercedes…

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