Michael's Korean GP Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2...8259&type=1

I was wondering why did a Mercedes GP employee tweet this? Just a random thought or what?



http://twitter.com/#!/onionterrors

Maybe he meant Schumachers partner. Hopefully.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

He's just getting good again. Don't want him to leave again.

In any case its doubtful, I thought DiResta was a shoe in for the team?

Surely this wind up is more likely to bother McLaren, after all Lewis has been openly courting himself to other teams...

no im sure some random mercedes gp employee speaks for the team and knows the score...

So were Red Bull in 2009. In the hunt for podiums, if not wins, from the outset. Button was nevertheless one of the most consistent drivers of the season. Point being that if you have such as massive advantage in terms of the whole package (car + tyre + reliability + balance + starts) you wouldn't need to push as hard. Cruise and collect drivers will always be more consistent while those that're driving cars off the pace will naturally need to push harder = more mistakes. Renault basically picked up from where they'd left off in 2005, while Ferrari were off the back of a dismal campaign in 05 and were still getting to grips with the Bridgestone issues, which still plagued them in 2006: remember San Marino?

There's way too many factors involved to categorize the season neatly into two halves. Performance was both circuit and tyre dependent, it was not as simple as the fairy tale stories that are usually presented on here make it out to be.



The flexi-wing issue was outside Michael's control, too. I don't think the penalty was justified, at the time I laughed out loud when the question of Felipe having been blocked was brought up. But what does that have to do with Renault running with an illegal, unfair and massive advantage for 11 races in an 18 race season? They cheated for the vast majority of the season and hoarded up on points, wonder how the season would've worked out had they clamped down on them early on, just as they did with Ferrari.



Which side of the garage does he work on?

I see Hamilton going to Red Bull in 2013 rather than Mercedes.

I wouldn't say this guy is MGP employee or anyhow connected to MGP.

Don't have an account on Twitter but someone should ask him what he's talking about.

one of his tweets lists a bunch of suposed mercedes employee tweet acounts but he doesnt seem very profesional and comes across as a tard whos mad about rugby so hes probably just some random idiot

His Pictures seem kinda legit though, but hey these guys speculate also and he doesn't seem that high up in the rankings though.

As a Schumacher fan, what really annoys me about him, is his red helmet and pink gloves!

I've referred that twitter and asked directly to OfficialMGP twitter account whether it has truth in it.

http://twitter.com/#!/efBir_blog/statu...929661925994496

I'll write follow-ups, if any.

Hopefully they respond and say it's all bullsh!t. I really really hope he stays on beyond 2012.

It's bullshit lol! that guys is some random idiot who is MGP fan. that's all

For past twenty years I am still looking for Michael's fashion adviser (while I do carry big stick in my hand).

...a lot people left under restriction agreement, and not all are happy. This came up on several occassions in the past.

I am hoping that MS will be invited to extend his stay with MGP by one more year.

Are you sure? Check out his twitter account including photos of colleagues from MGP.
His tweet is not more than a pitlane joke and Hamilton needs a big hug not MGP I guess.

The helmet does not go with the car's livery at all, I think it would be better if he had a black helmet. But the pink gloves seriously?

I don't know why, but the helmet does annoy me

I can see Schumacher signing for one more year after 2012, but that's probably about it if I am honest since he would be 44-45

i thought merc already said the option is on schumachers side if he wants it

I am not sure how serious they were; not too long ago there was a lot of pressure to dump him, but things might have changed recently. I am glad that RB sticked with him as a friend.

Since you say its not fair to look at the season as two halves, lets look at some statistics from 2006 :

Ferrari vs Renault :

Wins : 9 vs 8
Podiums : 10 vs 11
Top 4 finishes : 24 vs 19

Pole positions : 7 vs 7
Top 2 qualifying : 16 vs 11 (would've been 17 vs 11 since Schumacher was good enough for atleast second place)
Top 3 qualifying : 20 vs 15 (again, should actually be 21 for Ferrari considering Monaco)

Reliability related DNFs : 1 (Japan) vs 3 (Hungary, Italy for FA and Bahrain for Fisichella)

I can see that Ferrari have more wins, equal number of pole positions, almost the same number of podiums, more front row qualifying, more top 3 qualifying, less Reliability related DNFs and more top 4 finishes than Renault. From this we can actually conclude that the Ferrari was marginally better, however their qualifying issues in 2 races would mean its reasonable to peg the two teams as equal.

I dont see how you can make an outrageous claim of Renault having the 'massively better package' when every bit of information points to the contrary.
Here's where the difference lies between the two teams for 2006 and the reason why one team won both championships while the other went away empty handed :
DNFs due to driver error : 4 vs 1 (2 each for MS and FM and 1 for GF)



The Mass Dampner was on the car since 2005 IIRC. It was approved by the FIA and later banned because they later decided that it was a moveable aero device (which made it similar in function to Ferrari's flexi wings).

It was Renault's interpretation of the rules, an innovation bordering on the edge of the rules like Williams active suspension or Brawns diffuser, hardly what you call illegal and unfair. It was declared illegal after it was approved at first, very similar to the Brawn GP car of 2009 which again was more tecnical genius (and borderline) than illegal and unfair in my book.

Michael will have a drive for as long as he wants it.

There we go again... we just can't have qualifying free of troubles for few GPs in a row.

Late lap, vibration. Meh

Must have been some issues, otherwise that one single try makes no sense

BBC: 0638: Schumacher is suffering for some vibration somewhere on his Mercedes but he puts a brave face on and, with the track to himself, clambers into ninth. Vitaly Petrov in his Renault is ahead of him.

Does it mean the problem will continue during the race then?

ok, thanks. Hope they find a fix before the race

I hope those vibrations are just a bad set of tires...

Yes, it seems so. BBC just said that the tyres were unbalanced and there was vibration, which meant he only improved 0.15s with SS on.

Well, it clearly isn't great, but here's hoping for a better race day with no accidents.

Mercedes continue to be incompetent in qualifying. 12th isnt too bad though, we shall see tomorrow.

This is really disappointing. I got up at 6am to see this!?! Why can't MSC catch a break in quali?!?!

Just a short interview on BBC with MS. He knew straightaway when he left the pits that he had a problem with the tyres. He thought he could improve by 0.5 sec which would have taken him into Q3, but he only improved by 0.15s.

What a pity about the vibrations, I knew it was going to be a wasted effort and wasted lap the moment they came on the radio.

Long straight here, should be a good race I hope. Exciting at least.



No we can't. Why the hell would I lump Massa into the same category as Fisico? I think Massa did a much better job than Fisichella in 2006, this was the pre-2009, pre-accident Massa that was perfectly at home with grooves and wider fronts, and had the same driving style as MS. The same guy that nearly won a title, unlike Giancarlo.

Like any other F1 season, performance was dependent upon both tyres and track characteristics. At both Hungary and China Renault + Michelin was obviously the better package to have. The Michelins on the Renault were also more consistent in the races and easier to manage compared to the Bridgestones, France was a perfect example of this when the Renaults got away with a less optimal strategy. All three races were in the second part of the season where Ferrari supposedly had the better car. To neatly divide the season into two halves and say Ferrari had the better car throughout the second half is therefore rubbish. Still, I'm okay with people that think the two cars were evenly matched even though I don't agree, but definitely not with fairytales like how Ferrari had a better car in the second half and still lost.



I'm aware of that and I couldn't care less because it doesn't change the fact that Renault did have an unfair advantage for 11 of the 18 races. Teams do not stand still over the course of a season, having a borderline innovation at the start of a season would have been okay if the teams did not develop the technology and benefit from it further. That is the reasoning behind banning anything mid-season and that was the case with the EBDs this year. I don't give a damn what's fair or not in your book, as far as I'm concerned Renault were cheating and it was pathetic that the FIA let them get away with it for as long as they did. Unlike with Ferrari and the flexi-wings, which happened after the second race of the season.


By now I can tell you're one of those people that believes Ferrari had the better car in 2006 and no amount of reasoning is going to change that, all I can suggest is you go back and rewatch the season. Watch every practice, qualifying and race session, take note of Ferrari's issues with the tyres and inconsistency, pay attention to the post-race briefings, etc, instead of hunting up statistics over the internet. Like any other season both had their ups and downs and were better suited at some tracks rather than others, pretty naive to suggest otherwise. I'm not going to waste more time discussing 2006 with someone that thinks Ferrari had the better car that year.

The ban of the mass damper didn't really affect the Renault. Just compare to the others Michelin runners.

It was just a matter of tires and I completely agry with BRK

Great job Mercedes GP. Well done again

Well Nico already complained yesterday that they are running low on front wings. So hopefully no stupid contacts.

There was nothing to choose between Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher in Q1 as they were separated by just 0.080s. Rosberg managed to go 0.5s faster on option tyres in Q2 and a futher 0.1s in Q3. So more or less there is 0.7s difference between both type of compounds. Michael improved only 0.15s on his only run in Q2. So that's not ideal. He has now 2 sets of brand new prime tyers and 2 set of brand new options tyres. I hope the vibration issue of the tyres on which he qualified and will start to race will be resolved, otherwise he could be in back foot in the first stint.

A tenth faster and he would have made it. He should have just gone for another lap.

Don't know, he seemed to have no confidence with the car because of the vibration issue, I think that was just an attempt to do the best under the circumstances and see what came of it, probably had given up on Q3 when they learnt about the problem.

He doesn't have to start on those tyres and the team will most likely check all the tyres tonight to be sure... or MGP should

Syndrome of late outing(SLOw) strike again. Timo Glock on RTL said that MS made mistake in S3 somewhere.

Hmm, just checked out @Onionterrors, apparently he'd give an arm, both nuts and one of his children to be in Auckland (Rugby WC?)...still nothing on the Hamilton thing, though.

Yeah, sure. A brain fade on my part. Sorry

Long runs of FI and Torro Rosso are very good, similar to MGP, although we don't know the fuel loads. It's going to be very difficult tomorrow, best I think we can hope is for 8th, and if lucky, beat Nico for 7th.

Of course one possibility is he would retire at 47 equaling Fangio in the history books.

I always had it in mind that MS would like to achieve double figures for GP wins ie; 100.

12th, while obviously disappointing, isn't disastrous - a good start should still mean a handful of points for Schumi.