22/07/2012
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
Qualifying was a tale of two halves for Mercedes, with Michael Schumacher third - after Mark Webber's penalty - while Nico Rosberg languished in an eventual twenty-first after a gearbox change.
Unhappy and uncompetitive in the dry, Schumacher was more at home in wet conditions while across the garage Rosberg's qualifying experience was quite the reverse. "Nico was pretty happy with his dry tyre performance and not so happy with the wet tyre and Michael was vice versa," explained Team Principal Ross Brawn.
The team chose to leave dry setups on both cars, looking towards the forecasted dry race rather than reacting to the wet conditions. It was a calculated risk as the rain fell more heavily, with the risk of aquaplaning ever increasing as a result - indeed catching out Force India's Nico Hulkenberg. "Things that can affect aquaplaning are the ride height and tyre pressures," Brawn explained. "You're always balancinge tyre pressures. Higher tyre pressures seem to be better for aquaplaning but give less grip.
"We haven't compromised the set up to be honest," he added. "It's a dry set up and not one that we've had a lot of time to work on because of the varying conditions."
During final practice on Saturday morning Mercedes was one of the few teams to run on full tanks, gaining valuable tyre data on a weekend when dry running has been limited.
"We certainly got some information that helped us," said Brawn. "Trying to anticipate the balance that you need for the race is tricky. That's why we've been focussing for some time now on widening the tolerance of the car, to bring a better range of balance to it, so when these conditions change we don't get caught out so much."
Finding that window is difficult as feedback from the drivers can often be misleading. "To give you an example; in Malaysia we had a wet race and Nico thought his tyres got too hot and shredded them but when he got in they were actually brand new because they were actually too cold. But to a driver it can feel the same," Brawn revealed.
Warmer conditions for the race will ease Mercedes' concerns over tyre temperature, particularly for Schumacher who barely scraped through the first phase of qualifying after struggling to generate temperature in his Pirelli's. "With this tyre the balance is not getting too hot and falling over one side or not having them too cold and never getting them working properly," Brawn explained. "I think Michael's issue in Q1 was getting the tyre to work properly so that shouldn't be an issue.
Bright blue skies on Sunday were good news for Rosberg too, who faces the daunting prospect of carving his way through the field if he's to take anything away from his home Grand Prix. Strong on dry tyres the German starts well behind his car's potential, and should prove to be one to watch in the early stages.