It’s the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, the last stop of the current Formula One season. As it is the end of another exciting F1 year, this race will also likely herald the end of an era—the Michael Schumacher era, in the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team. It will be the 7-time champion's final race for the team, as Lewis Hamilton has been signed for next year to run alongside Nico Rosberg.
Calling Michael's brief, and rather uneventful, 3-year stint with the Mercedes team an 'era' might be a tad premature, but considering what he brought to the team, he still had a definite impact in the identity and visibility for Mercedes AMG Petronas.
Everyone was just delighted when Schumacher made the podium this year at the European Grand Prix, the first since he came out of retirement. The finish also made him the oldest driver to get one in F1. He was 43 years and 173 days old at the time. He was also able to achieve his 77th fastest lap for his career, back in July, and also raced in his 300th GP—becoming only the second driver to get to 300, the other being former Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello.
"Interlagos is the right place to round off my career because so much of the fascination of Formula One is rooted there," Schumacher said, adding that it's the circuit that brings back memories of Ayrton Senna.
"I have had fantastic years in Formula One and a lot of support from fans around the world, and I wish to particularly thank them for that. Of course, I would be happiest if I could say goodbye with a strong race, and I am sure we will be doing everything we can to make it happen."
Rosberg added that he hopes for a positive end to the team's season, with a good showing from practice to qualifying to the race proper. He stressed the importance of learning from the race and from the season to make next year more competitive.
Rosberg also noted the farewell race for Schumacher. "I wish him all the best for the future and it was a great experience for me to race with and against him," he said.
6D Vision, a new feature that’s set to debut on the upcoming Mercedes-Benz S-Class, has just been given the Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize, which is given to scientific and technical achievements that are deemed to be driving forces in Germany when it comes to innovation.. Specifically, the award will go to the men in Daimler’s research team who developed this safety innovation: Dr. Uwe Franke, Dr. Stefan Gehrig, and Dr. Clemens Rabe.
With the 6D Vision system that’s part of the Intelligent Drive program, road safety is enhanced because the technology can easily identify the various traffic environments as well as the hazards within them, thereby considerably helping reduce the occurrence of accidents.
“In future, all our fully networked and intelligent driver assistance systems will come under the name of Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive," said Daimler BoardMember for Management and also part of the Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, Professor Thomas Weber. "Since ’6D Vision’ can make a significant contribution towards reducing traffic accidents, we intend to make the technology accessible to other manufacturers.
"This means that there will continue to be a little piece of Mercedes-Benz in every car.”
The technology figures to be a key part of navigating through complex traffic environments, especially those wherein the driver’s visibility is limited, like in intersections. 6D Vision can pinpoint hazards and other factors easily and quickly. It can even identify moving targets like other vehicles in a short span of time and calculate the movement and trajectories of these objects, allowing the vehicle’s other safety systems to kick in and prevent any accident.
The 6D Vision system was also nominated for the German Future Prize in 2011.
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