Schumacher remains cautious on Mercedes form

2011 F1 testing

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Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, Barcelona, 2011

Michael Schumacher would not be drawn on his car’s performance after leading Friday’s test at Barcelona.

He told journalists at the Circuit de Catalunya: “What I can say is, our package seems to work pretty good at the test, but has everyone showed their potential yet, we will see in Melbourne.”

He added: "We have had a good three days here. We’re developing the car step by step.”

“The main issue here we had here at the test was finding the balance of the car and optimizing the car performance and that’s worked pretty well.

“We look forward to Australia. Everything is in reasonably strong condition for Australia.”

Nico Rosberg also drove the car today as the weather forecast for tomorrow predicts rain.

He said: “First of all, it’s super that I was able to do some laps today, given the forecast for tomorrow. It was a good few laps, and obviously now that we have most of the developments for the car, it was handling much better and I had a good feeling.

“So I’m pretty pleased with the situation and would like to thank the whole team for getting everything onto the car that we wanted. We’ve made good progress over the winter.”

Schumacher quotes and additional reporting by Leandra Graves

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    20 comments on “Schumacher remains cautious on Mercedes form”

    1. schumacher knows how to play the media. sonuds to me like he’s pretty happy with the car’s pace.

      looks like the round up is late!

      1. Yes I agree. Last years car was built for Jenson and he wasn’t happy with it. Now they made it to suits his driving style. Can’t wait to see the 1st race in OZ. :)

    2. Great news that MS seems to like the new spec merc, i think it would be good for F1 if he could be competitive again and have 5 champions genuinely fighting for wins

      if vettel had less that 10 laps onboard on wednesday then even if schumy’s time today was a full-on qualy simulation then they are surely within 0.5s of the Red Bulls and thats a resonable improvement over the winter…

      i hope not to be proved wrong and MS has a solid season maybe even a few podiums could lift merc and MS confidence further.. am predicting 4th or 5th in WDC for schumacher in 2011

    3. I only became an true F1 fanatic in 2007 when Lewis came along and created a storm, so Schumachers dominance is only something of myth to me, something ive only seen snippets of, i would just love to see some of the old schumacher back and for him to fight for an 8th crown.

      1. Now that I’ve never read before… O.o

        Seeing Schumacher do well brings back the feelings that got me into F1 as a 7 year old.

      2. Me too. I want him to repeat Brazil 2006 often.

    4. They are still 1.2 sec off the pace of the fastest time from last year. So without knowing their fuel load it’s tough to make any conclusion. I hope this are high fuel run, & should boost their spirit.

      1. But Wasif, This year’s specs offer lower downforce and we know about tyreware so mechanical grip is compromised, so I think lap times will be off than previous year’s.

        Most of the lap records are of the 3.0 litre V8’s so F1 is getting slower. I think it’s all because FIA is restricting aero package for closer racing and all.

        1. small correction , the 3.0 litre engines were V10

      2. That difference is about the right estimate of how much the Pirellis are slower than last years bridgestones were.

        I would think they went pretty far with a low fuel run, although it might not have been completely empty.

        1. If I remember correctly I read somewhere that it was a 7 lap run. I don’t know if that was with in and outlap so it was probaby 9 laps plus a little safety so it may have been fuel for 10 laps. I don’t think that is a fuel load just for show, but nobody knows about the other teams. I’d wish to see Schumacher win some races this year but after last years performance I rather don’t want to get my hopes up too high.

          1. ‘3.0 litre V8′s’

            Formula 1 never had that specification. I think they had 3 litre V10.

    5. Happy to see Merc is back. :)

    6. I really hope this is indeed just cautious optimism, it would be great to see Michael back on the podium.

    7. Schumacher is a fast learning guy. Eventually, he has shown that he can do fastest laps. Now, there’s still one potential problem he has to solve: since tyres in this season degrade wery fast, more important than a few very fast laps might be having a reasonable average over the whole race, and this depends on how the pilot can preserve the tyres, while still have a decent average time / lap. If Schumacher solve this too (I think this won’t be a problem for Nico) then he’ll do well this season.
      Anyway, this is not all; it’s still too early to say whether Mercedes is reliable. Not to mention that having all the above working well, the hazard will play a big role in 2011.

      1. schumacher is know to be good in conserving tyres… so i don’t see any problems with that.

    8. Sounds promising for the W02 :)

      I wouldn’t worry about speed relative to last year, wasF1.

    9. Should be interesting…the last minute changes may have helped, but we don’t know how much in terms of once they are racing in anger…ie. how is the car/aero package in dirty air? How will it’s tire wear really be compared to others? Reliability? etc etc. I too hope the Merc is a little closer to the top teams so I can see NR take it to MS and some of the other top drivers. I want to see how MS does with a bonafide teammate and without a 3 year layoff and a car lacking front grip as an excuse. What I’m also intrigued about is that not too long ago we heard the Merc was lacking front grip, which I thought was exactly the one most important thing they needed to tackle to help MS. So if this new aero package has helped in that regard, does that mean that more downforce up front will mean more tire wear up front as well? MS likes the front end nailed to the track, which he didn’t have last year, so it should be ineresting to see if that style even suits the new tires that seem to fall off so quickly. I’m starting to think all the drivers can be fast at certain small windows of time, certain limited laps when the tires are good before they are not.

    10. sorry for the bad news guys, schumacher hasnt got the car for his style, because if he had, rosberg would not be able to handle it, schumis driving style is unique, and 99% of other drivers dont like it, so mercedes have compromised, and built a car that both drivers can drive, and it looks like it suits rosbergs style more, so we have to wait for schumacher to adapt to a car, that isnt right for his style.
      rosberg got his way again, they keep putting schumacher down, and that his team mate is ahead of him in the same car, this is not the case, they may be in the same car, but it doesnt suit schumis style of driving, and it does rosbergs, in other words , rosberg got his way, and schumacher just got on with it, no whinging. who said this, i am very upset, that i do not get the credit for beating schumacher, yes you got it, it was rosberg, he doesnt help his team mate, he just wants beat his team mate no matter what.

      1. Because it makes perfect sense to pay the most successful driver ever an eight-figure sum to come out of retirement, then spend two years giving him a car he can’t drive.

        Utter nonsense.

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