| Mercedes Benz

F1 Sao Paulo - SUN - Race - Lewis Hamilton Third

By Adji | Published Sunday, 18 October 2009

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Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct 18, 2009

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-24-02
- Started: 17th
- Finished: 3rd
- Fastest lap: 1m14.345s (6th)
- Pitstops: two (Op-Pr-Pr)
- 2009 points: 49 (5th)

As Lewis passed the baton of world champion to Brawn GP’s Jenson Button this afternoon, he signed off by posting a real champion’s drive, storming through the field from 17th on the grid to third at the chequered flag.

With a first-lap accident prompting a Safety Car, Lewis’s crew chose to pit him immediately, effectively switching him to a single-stop strategy and placing him on the more efficient Prime tyre for the remainder of the race.

Restarting the race from 14th, he pushed hard, passing both Jaime Alguersuari and Romain Grosjean on a single lap, and moving up to fourth before making his final stop on lap 42.

Rejoining behind pole-sitter Rubens Barrichello, Lewis caught the Brazilian, finally KERS-boosting past him along the start-finish straight on lap 62 to be third.

“It was an incredible race for me and I’m so happy,” Lewis said. “Starting at the back was a completely different feeling from last year. This time, I wasn’t involved in the championship outcome, but I’m incredibly happy for Jenson. I’ve been down to congratulate him, his team and his family.

“As for my race, I was so far behind on the grid that I didn’t expect to finish on the podium, but I fought so hard and kept pushing like crazy throughout the whole race. It feels like a win when you come through fighting for positions all the time with good overtaking manoeuvres at the end.

“I just kept pushing and did one qualifying lap after another, which was very hard. The team kept telling me to keep going at that speed and our strategy was excellent. This was a great team effort.”

The points scored today move Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to third position in the constructors’ world championship, one point ahead of Ferrari.

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
- MP4-24-03
- Started: 16th
- Finished: 9th
- Fastest lap: 1m14.303s (5th)
- Pitstops: three (Pr-Pr-Op-Op)
- 2009 points: 22 (12th)

From 16th on the grid, Heikki was squeezed through Turn Two, suffered contact with Sebastian Vettel and spun, rejoining at the tail of the field and quickly pitting to top up his fuel load. However, through no fault of his own, Heikki was released before the refuelling nozzle had fully decoupled. As a result, the fuel hose was pulled from the rig and fuel was showered into the path of a following car, where it briefly ignited.

The delay in releasing the hose, signalling Heikki out of the pits, and the resultant loss of fuel into the car, meant that Heikki’s race was compromised from the very first lap.

Nonetheless, he raced hard, working his way into a points-scoring position before making his second stop on lap 29. Thereafter, he enjoyed a spirited tussle with Kamui Kobayashi and efficiently dealt with Giancarlo Fisichella – for the second time in two races – at the exit of his third and final stop.

Ninth position doesn’t accurately reflect his efforts today. His fifth fastest race lap, and – without losing fuel at the start – the team’s estimated finishing position of fourth, by contrast do.

“While the results don’t show it, I had a good race out there today,” said Heikki. “I lost about six or seven laps’ worth of fuel with the incident with the fuel-hose. And, without that problem, my first stint would have been longer and would have allowed me to get ahead of some of the cars ahead of me.

“I chased Kobayashi for a long time, and, even though I had the pace, I couldn’t launch an attack on him because my rear tyres had degraded quite a bit by then.

“Still, I’m very pleased that our team has now moved ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ world championship. And I really feel I could have added to that total without my problems in the pitlane today.

“I’m already looking forward to the next race in Abu Dhabi. My aim there will be to go flat-out to ensure we consolidate that position and finish the season in third place.”

COMMENTS

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“First of all, on behalf of all at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, I’d like to offer our congratulations to Jenson, to Ross, to Nick and to the entire Brawn team for winning the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships this afternoon – and to Mercedes-Benz, too, who supplied their winning engines. Jenson fully deserves his success – although I’d like to make clear that both Rubens and Sebastian would also have been worthy champions, had things played out differently.

“Passing the champion’s baton to Jenson is of course Lewis, who performed as brilliantly as ever today. We altered his strategy as a result of the deployment of the Safety Car, after which he drove a fantastic race from 17th on the grid to third at the flag. Had he not been stuck in traffic for a few key periods of the race, he may have finished even higher up the field. Certainly, his race pace was very strong.

“Heikki would have scored points too, had he not been delayed by a pitlane incident in which he was blameless, caused by human error. Fortunately, no-one was hurt in the incident and we were quickly able to effect the back-up rig ahead of both drivers’ second stops. Once we get all the video footage back to Woking, we’ll perform a forensic investigation, in ‘slow time’, to establish exactly what happened. Until we’ve done that, it’s impossible for us to comment on the incident with any precision.

“Now, we travel to Abu Dhabi, where we intend to defend our new one-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors’ world championship that Lewis’s third place earned us today.”

NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“What a race! Firstly, I would like to congratulate, on behalf of Mercedes-Benz, Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team for winning both Formula 1 world championships today.

“Ten months ago these guys were in danger of having no future in Formula 1. Today, they all achieved the biggest reward possible for all their hard work and effort. Well done Ross and Nick and everybody at Brawn GP – you wrote a fairytale story this season.

“I also would like to express my sincere compliments to all our engine people at Brixworth and Stuttgart – Mercedes-Benz powered two times in a row the world champion!

“Of course, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and Lewis would have liked to keep the world championship title in our camp – but I think it’s fair to say that Jenson and Brawn GP are successors that fully deserve what they achieved.

“So here are some unusual statistics to enjoy: for the second year in a row, car number 22, driven by an Englishman and powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine has finished fifth in Brazil to win the world championship – what an amazing list of coincidences!

“Lewis today drove a fantastic race from 17th on the grid onto the podium, and this certainly was the best climbing up the ranks during all the 16 races this season. I’m totally convinced that he could have fought for victory today if he had started from the first two rows of the grid, which originally had been our plan.

“The team displayed a very smart move in switching both cars to a one-stop strategy after the Safety Car was deployed during the first lap. Heikki suffered from an early release from the pits which was entirely not his fault – without this handicap he would have scored some solid points today.

“We are now third in the constructors’ world championship and no other team has scored more points than we did during the second half of the season in the last seven races since Lewis’s first win this year in Hungary in July. And no driver scored more points than Lewis since then.

“I would like to say sorry to Rubens and Sebastian who today needed to give up their fierce plans of winning the world championship – but I am sure both of them see, like all of us, in Jenson Button a worthy successor to Lewis Hamilton as F1 world champion.”

Copyright © 2009, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

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F1 Sao Paulo - SAT - Qualifying - Difficult round for McLaren Mercedes in complete washout

By Adji | Published Saturday, 17 October 2009

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct 17, 2009

With the set-up of both cars leaning heavily towards tomorrow’s anticipated dry conditions, and with MP4-24 lacking the overall aerodynamic grip of the cars with the highest downforce levels, neither Heikki nor Lewis were able to graduate beyond Q1 in this afternoon’s chaotic, rain-lashed qualifying session. Heikki will start tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix from 17th, while Lewis will line up 18th.

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
- MP4-24-03
P3 programme
- 1m25.685s (5 laps, 12th)
Qualifying
- Q1 - 1m25.052s (17th overall)

“These were some of the worst conditions I’ve ever experienced in a race weekend. I like driving in wet conditions, but today there was so much aquaplaning that it was extremely difficult to keep the car on the track. Plus, there was very bad visibility when you were travelling in the spray of another car.

“This result shows that we still lack some downforce, so there was nothing we could do to go any faster. I hope the set-up will better suit us in different conditions tomorrow.”

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-24-02
P3 programme
- 1m27.798s (4 laps, 17th)
Qualifying
- Q1 - 1m25.192s (18th overall)

“Today was one of the worst qualifying sessions I can remember. Our car didn’t feel good at all: for both Heikki and me, we couldn’t even go flat-out along the straights – that’s how little grip we had.

“It was a disappointing performance, but we did the best we could – I even had a small ‘off’ trying to push at the end and the car just let loose on me. We were running with a dry set-up, so it’s a lot stiffer than you’d probably want in the wet – and our shortfall in downforce, compared to some of the other cars, really shows in these conditions.

“I’m hoping the sun comes out for tomorrow so we’ll have a fighting chance of getting into the points, but starting 18th means your weekend is really on the back foot.”

COMMENTS

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“This was obviously disappointing for the whole team. Perhaps we concentrated too much on anticipating a potentially dry race tomorrow, and, consequently, we didn’t give our drivers a car that enabled them to graduate past Q1. Clearly, this was not what we’d hoped for, but we will be doing everything we can in tomorrow’s race.

“We won’t give up, and we want to score some points tomorrow by adopting perhaps a less risk-averse strategy than we otherwise would have done from positions further up the grid.”

NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“A great disappointment. It looks as if our cars were more surfing than driving on lots of water on the track and, obviously, as a team we didn’t give it the best possible shot during these difficult heavy rain conditions today.

“We certainly can’t blame our drivers for our struggle – they are proven rain specialists.

“In addition, I feel very sorry for our friend Sebastian Vettel, who couldn’t make it into Q2 either, which may have cost him his last chance of a shot at the title.”

Copyright © 2009, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

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F1 Sao Paulo - FRI - Free Practice

By Adji | Published Friday, 16 October 2009

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct 16, 2009

LEWIS HAMILTON
- MP4-24-02
P1 programme
- 25 laps
- 1m13.048s (5th)
P2 programme
- 39 laps
- 1m12.749s (10th)

Despite starting on a cold and somewhat gripless track, Lewis was immediately on the pace, setting a best time of 1m13.187s at the end of his opening six-lap run. He sat out the next half an hour while the rain showers intensified, but his return to the track was cut short by Grosjean’s accident, which happened just as Lewis was ready to exit the pitlane.

He completed two further runs in the morning session (six laps/1m13/048s and five laps/1m13.278s) to wind up fifth fastest.

For the afternoon session, Lewis switched to longer runs, focusing on evaluating the performance of the Option tyre. He completed an initial four-lap run on the Prime (1m13.157s) before undertaking an 11-lap stint (Primes/1m13.016s) and nine laps on the Option (1m12.749s). At the end of the session, the mechanics effected a rear downforce change and Lewis completed six laps (1m12.882s)

“We had a good Friday,” said Lewis. “We’re not the fastest, but our long runs appear to be quite consistent. We’re not as quick as the Red Bulls, but, for Brazil – where we haven’t traditionally been quick – we’re quite happy with the pace we have.

“In the past, we’ve always been quick in qualifying but not as quick in the race. KERS is worth close to four tenths in quali and around half that in the race, so I’m optimistic for tomorrow afternoon and think the consistency we showed today will reward us in the race.”

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN
- MP4-24-03
P1 programme
- 25 laps
- 1m12.989s (4th)
P2 programme
- 39 laps
- 1m12.992s (17th)

Heikki completed four runs this morning, focusing on longer runs in order to sufficiently warm up the Prime tyre in the cooler conditions. After finishing his opening five-lap stint (1m14.785s best), his second outing (two laps/1m14.258s) was cut short when the session was stopped to recover the debris from Romain Grosjean’s collision with a marker board.

With rain constantly threatening, he quickly completed two further runs (four laps/1m13.087s and four laps/1m12.989s) to end the first session in fourth position overall.

In P2, Heikki ran a near-identical programme to Lewis. Completing an exploratory, short, five-lap run on Primes (1m13.049s), the bulk of his afternoon was taken up with a 10-lap run on Primes (1m12.992s) and a further 10-lap run on the Option (1m13.079s). He ended the day 17th fastest, completing his running with a five-lap stint (1m13.110s).

Heikki said: “A productive day. The times may not necessarily show it, but we’ve made some good progress today. We followed a disciplined programme, focusing on our race pace and evaluating both tyre compounds. Our pace on both tyres appears to be very good and we suffered very limited degradation, so I think our race pace will be good.”

COMMENTS

MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“Firstly, it’s a great feeling to be back in Brazil, and, in particular, here at Interlagos. This circuit holds some very happy memories for the whole team, and they came flooding back this morning once the sessions started.

“Interlagos hasn’t normally been a circuit where our race pace has been strong, but today’s running has certainly showed a remarkable level of consistency, which we are confident will carry over into the race on Sunday.

“Today’s times also show that the pace of both Red Bulls looks very strong, but we believe we’ll have a competitive racing car for this weekend.”

NORBERT HAUG
Vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
“Not a bad day. We’ve been posting quick and consistent lap times in our race simulations. Lewis in 10th position was a little less than three tenths slower than Rubens Barrichello in third, and the three world championship contenders did similar lap times to Lewis. All 20 cars are separated by less than a second on their fastest laps, so it’s closer than ever in Formula 1.

“I’m not too concerned about our positions in today’s rankings. Tomorrow and on Sunday, we hopefully should be as competitive as in the last races, but of course there is always room for improvement.”

Copyright © 2009, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.

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Navigation 20: Navigation system for the Mercedes-Benz Audio 20 CD available

By Adji

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Stuttgart, Germany, Oct 15, 2009

Mercedes-Benz will in future offer a fully integrated navigation system - called 'Navigation 20' - for its standard Audio 20 CD high-performance radio. The new device is based on highly sophisticated technology and offers numerous navigation features - including variable map displays, a realistic display of the roadscape at motorway exits, TMC traffic reports and comprehensive country-specific information. It is also equipped with connections for most audio sources. Navigation 20 can simply be installed into the Audio 20 CD at any Mercedes-Benz service partner.

The tried-and-trusted Audio 20 radio retains its full range of functions: it features a CD player (with MP3 capability), an FM/MW/SW and LW tuner with automatic station search, an RDS function (for FM reception), direct frequency input using the buttons on the centre console and a 4x20-watt amplifier. Navigation 20 is a fully-integrated plug & play solution, which adds various features to the Audio 20. The newly added map-based navigation can be viewed on the large, fixed colour display (4.9 inches in the C-Class). In addition to this, arrows on the instrument cluster indicate the navigation instructions. There is a choice of display modes: 2D North-up, 2D Track-up or 3D Track-up. The 3D map can be tilted in three stages using the controller. Plus Navigation 20 includes Reality View PRO with a realistic depiction of the roadscape – including road signs, clear indication of motorway intersections and exits, and lane recommendations. TMC traffic-congestion reports are taken into account when calculating routes.

Detailed maps of 43 European countries are included. When crossing national borders, key information about the traffic regulations in force in the country concerned - such as speed limits, drink-driving limits, compulsory use of daytime driving lights, and obligations to carry ID or other documents - can be called up.
What's more, the high-performance entertainment system allows the connection of almost all audio devices such as an iPod, MP3 player or USB stick. And it is configured for audio streaming via Bluetooth. The system is utilised safely and ergonomically via the controller in the centre console.

The new Navigation 20 system is available now for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and GLK-Class. It will also be offered for the E-Class from mid-2010 onwards. It can simply be integrated in the vehicle at the Mercedes-Benz service partner. Price: € 1099 incl. VAT plus installation.

Copyright © 2009, Mercedes-Benz-Blog. All rights reserved.