Mercedes GP Petronas F1 = Team Germany - Im surprised people are'nt seing it that way ...

The team is German owned, with 2 German drivers .... No way in a million years we will see Team Germany attack each other !

This is not Ferrari we are taking about here ....

Both drivers (Schumacher and Rosberg) want to represent Germany as best as they can in 2010 !

I think the Mercedes GP driver-duo will be the best combo of ALL the field , even better than Mclaren ( the brits are so stuck up, just watch the sparks will fly at Wolking ) ...

Its in Nico's best interest to learn from his 7 times WDC teamate I think Rosberg respects Schumacher much more than people on F1 forum boards are willing to believe ...

I think Rosberg will be a second Eddie Irvine to MS ... Do his job as the 2nd fastest driver in the team, help MS if needed and get plenty of podiums and maybe a win or two if the car is good enough in 2010 ....

Schumacher rates Rosberg as a very talented driver and respects his speed ....

And the team's head is Ros and the COO is Nick... sorry could not resist.

If Schumacher returns and is as good as he was before he retired, then Nico will benefit if he is clever. Look at how much Massa improved under Schumacher's wing. Nico is in a prime position here. If he learns from Schumacher, then it will stand him in good stead for the rest of his career. The only problem for him is, Schumacher could possibly be around for quite a while. Schumacher's intentions are to be in F1 for another 3 years. If he does stay that long, and he is beaten by Schumacher, he is stuffed.

With the number change, Schumacher gets the lead car, so in theory he is the lead driver as he has the orange camera. But that is only how it is decided by FOM.

Nico is one of those drivers to me that makes me wonder if he is a top level driver. There are some drivers that are fantastic but with obvious weaknesses (Vettel) and if they were ironed out then that driver could become a very dominant driver.

I think MS is pulling a fast one over Rosberg.

I really hope rosberg will kick schumi's ass. Veto for dinosaurs in F1

From a marketing perspective, of course Mercedes would prefer M Schumacher to bring home the bacon rather then Nico.

However, for either of them to win races fair and square let alone having a shot of the champioinship, Mercedes will have to produce a distinctly superior car to McLaren, Ferrari and Redbull as I dont think either of them can hold a candle to the likes of Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso.

Brawn did it in 2009 but can they do it again? Perhaps, possible, but not likely.

Seconded.



Does Schumacher have the No.1 status contractually this year? I assume few people knows that...

There isn't Schumacher vs Rosberg.
There is only Schumacher with help of Rosberg against all other.

I reckon someone will ask Ross about that pretty soon. Anything other than a straight forward "No. Both drivers are on equal terms" is going to be interpreted as team-boss-speak version of saying "yup, MSC is no.1"

Schumacher can handle any driver that he faces.... It's going to be a bit funny when we see the old man beating the new young guys.

No, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna to try with a little help from my friends

No, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna to try with a little help from my friends

The way he has kept quiet is at least a good start for Nico in his season matched against his best teammate yet. Actions not words will prove it one way or the other and he will need to earn Ross's respect as well. The way NR scythed through traffic on every lap 1 last season with only one touch made me think he is ready for a top team - now he gets to measure himself against the best. But will MS still be at or near his peak?

I think you are deluded mate.

Nah, he has the advantage of being unprejudiced

I'm awaiting your pm group b. Would be a pleasure to meet you one day if you are anywhere near the London area. I see you have made little progress with the sand in the old hairy jack and danny?

After reading the "Brawn: Schumacher good for Rosberg" article on the main page, in which Ross Brawn says that having Schumacher as a teammate should help Rosberg unlock his potential, and it reminded me a lot of the Massa/Schumacher pairing at Ferrari in 2006.

Up until 2006, Massa was deemed as a pretty decent driver by most people, but I don't think that many ever considered him to be someone who would shape into a consistent championship contender. I know that I sure didn't. I always figured that Massa would just wind up as a journeyman like Heidfeld or Trulli. Decent drivers, but would unfortunately never properly shine for unexplainable reasons (even if we knew that they were good).

Although Schumacher certainly had the better of Massa all year long, he did improve quite a bit over the course of the 2006 season. Did Schumacher's advice and/or guidance help nurture Massa's natural talent until it blossomed into what we are used to seeing now?

I remember in 2007, Massa was quick from the very beginning, but at one point he appeared to become even better. When asked about it, he said something along the lines of, "I looked at Kimi's data and telemetry, and I just adapted it to my driving" or something like that, at least. As a result, he began to easily get the better of Kimi when the Finn didn't have his abnormal "Kimi blitzes the field" weekends, which became rare after he moved to Ferrari.

Massa just seemed to completely change after driving alongside Schumacher. He became faster, more intuitive, and he adapted better to many things. I was really impressed, personally.

And so that brings me to Rosberg. The situation he is in is no worse than Massa's situation before he himself was paired with Schumacher. In fact, I think that Rosberg has looked much better than the pre-Schumacher Massa. I might be wrong and I am biased (since I am a Rosberg fan), but there's no denying that Nico has had some admirable drives before.

So I wonder, will being paired with Schumacher refine Rosberg more? Will he improve as a driver? Will the old master help the young gun unlock his potential?


This is about what Schumacher can do for Rosberg. I'm going to ask that the team orders foolishness be kept out of the topic so that we can focus on something far more interesting. The potential development of Nico Rosberg in 2010 and beyond.

I'd say Rosberg's stock is higher going into this than Massa's was at the time. It depends on how willing he is to learn and how his Father influences him on allowing that. Massa was happy to learn and be guided.

I don't think so. Ross can't say that Schumi is going to crush Rosberg or something like that, can he? OK, maybe Schumacher is not going to crush Rosberg and perhaps Nico can learn a trick or two. But comparison with Schumi-Massa-2006 is not right. No-one expected Massa to be strong in 2006 while Nico was excellent last year with not-so-good Williams. And no-one knows how good 2010 Schumacher is.
IMHO Nico has already shown his potential, now he needs only right tools to make it count.

How good MS is isn't relevant to the scenerio. Rosberg could be faster but MS and Brawn know how to win, huge difference and Rosberg should be smart and take what he can from this year even at the risk of losing a bit - it will pay off long term.

So, the only option for Nico is "to learn from MS" ? Any other attitude will be undesrtood as a guy who was not willing to learn? I see.

Massa´s situation was completelly dif. He was way worse than MS (as he was way worse than almost every driver at that time). It could be MS or any other driver at Ferrari, still Massa really had to learn a lot or he would be fired. Again.

Well, my opinion is that Rosberg should not do what RB did. Either he accept that he has to "learn from MS" in order to "unlock his potential" or leave the team.

Maybe in 2011 your signature will read

http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-...lo-1705551.html

According to Alesi, the competitive performance of Rubens made-up MS' mind to come back to F1.

possible

It would have been funny if Rubens had been retained at Brawn/Merc and ended up partnering MS again, not that it would have happened. The language coming out of Mercedes indicates that they don't perceive Rosberg to be a championship threat at the moment with their talk about 'developing Nico as a championship challenger'. Its pretty obvious who they consider to be their 'number one'.

funny, but I thought about that in the 09 season, a couple of times they showed MS on TV in the Ferrari pits while Rubens was doing something good... and I just couldn't stop thinking that MS seeing Rubens performing well with Ross Brawn would feel tempted to return to F1 and was thinking "if even he can still do that, what am I doing outside the track?"

I think Schumy regrets not only skipping a BrawnGP drive in 2009 but also Ross' offer to buy the team before the season began.

Absolutely !

And rightfully so

NOw Michael is saying that he wil race beyond, 2012, which means Future of Rosberg is only in F1 by beating Michael in any situation he is invoplved in, Naturally it is free for Rosberg to make use of what ever he wants to learn from Michael.

Nico is racer so be it. He must not be a pupil.

Rosberg will have many many years to learn from Schumacher it seems
What a career killer if he´s doing what Rubens did, wait until he retires before
he gets the chance..

I think there are a few drivers that regret not taking up the offer to drive for Brawn, but then hindsight is a wonderful gift.

Brawn wanted Alonso,... true?

yes

For Brown, Alonso was the better choice for Ferrari, which have not materialized as he took a year off... true?

Who took a year off?

Ross

I think it's actually far too early to say anything conclusive, other than the fact that Schumacher has already started the mind games, such as grabbing the leading number in the team; little details that he's very good at in the strategy to assert his position.

That being said, this is not 2006. F1 has changed a great deal, both in terms of competitors and the working environment. Michael was (is) a preparation junkie; and sure as night follows day you can bet he has been preparing intensively. However, he cannot test as he used to; he's been away for a while (this must make a difference) and I suspect a large amount of the field aren't particularly awed by him. He'll be competitive, but I wouldn't underestimage Nico. He's got a tough head on his shoulders.

As for Brundle, didn't Briatore state he regretted getting rid of him, adding that he didn't realise how good he was?

Obvious isn't it? That in the season of '92 where they raced together at Benetton, Brundle drove extremely competitively against Schumacher. Of all of Schumacher's team mates, Brundle is the one thought to have come closest to match him.

Now Brundle was not quite as good as Schumacher. Brundle was nowhere near a match for Schumacher in qualifying. However he did very well in races when the car didn't fail him. Brundle most certainly beat Schumacher in pure racing at Silverstone, Canada, Italy and Magny Cours.

So yes Brundle did get very close to Schumacher at Benetton in 1992. Schumacher was still the better driver. But not by a large margin.

Yet Rosberg is letting him do, you could say, but I am interested in if Rosberg is determined to beat Michael at costs. If he wait he will have no future anywhere as Mercedes is the top of the ladder at this very moment.

Rosberg is probably going to be driving the best car of his career. I hope he schools Schumacher like he did with Nakajima.

Michael is an aggressive driver. When the pair has the same pace the competition starts to count down elements pther than speed, I am afraind. Ihoep I am VERY wrong in this. I hope that Rosberg beat Michael fair and square.

it is great that Michael is back, but it is Not Great f Michael Dominates like he did in the past.

First blood to Schumacher. Lets see if Rosberg can come back tomorrow with a much better laptime.

Brundle is a very good driver, probabley didn't achieve what his talent deserved, if I remember he once beat Senna when he was younger before f1 and went head to head with him, he raced with both, that' s a achievement in it's own right. I would of rather have seen Martin Brundle in a Williams in 94 after Senna died then David Couthard making a debut in a top team, Brundle deserved it more, but he fel into the old trap in being in wrong teams at the wrong time, and I think he knows he didn't achieve enough in f1 before he left.

I feel bad for Rosberg.

No matter what happens he is already cast into the number two spot through Schumacher's relationshipw ith Ross Brawn alone.

That wasn't even a scratch, perhaps we can wait until the first qualifying session before jumping to conclusions.

he has to prove himself


people say massa will be alonso's no2..clearly
but massa will (again..) prove to be on par with his team mate

the same thing rosberg has got to do. first, there should be no pressure on him
if he fails, well, everybody will say ms won because of his status. actually no matter what ms does it will be because of that. nobody will believe anything else
if he succeds, then great...
nothing to lose

You know Mike, I'm coming to that belief too. Rubens thinks it will be the MB/RB partnership - but then I guess he would!

On today's laptimes, some people are already reading this as Rosberg can't match The Great One's pace but realisticly, the PM times should improve as the new car is optimised and the track rubbers in etc. What's 0.4 under those circumstances?

I also feel bad for Rosberg - for a different reason though

Michael Schumacher says he is feeling like he is making his Formula 1 debut again after returning to testing action in current GP machinery at the Valencia circuit on Monday.

He never conducted winter testing in 1991. Now thats true history revisionism at work