Michael Schumacher believes Mercedes has reasons to be optimistic about its W01’s potential in Australia after ending the disrupted opening day near the top of the times.
With the opening session at Albert Park punctured by two red flag periods, and the second on-off rain showers, Schumacher was only able to complete 35 laps in total on his first day of driving at the bumpy circuit since 2006.
After his first practice position of 12th appeared to indicate he was running a reasonably heavy fuel load, the seven-time champion vaulted up to a final position of fourth in the dying minutes of the later session despite greasy track conditions – ensuring he finished ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg in any session for the first time this season.
Afterwards Schumacher was typically reluctant to predict the pecking order at this stage but did admit he was pleased with his own programme, particularly as he felt the team managed to improve the W01’s set-up throughout the day.
"As often on Fridays, the performance is difficult to judge as everybody seemed to be on different programmes,” the four-time Melbourne winner said.
“Having said that, I am quite happy with today's sessions, even if we did not run too much overall.
“My first session was a bit handicapped by red flags, later we faced some rain in the second session.
“But all in all, we learned a lot and we could improve the set up of our car quite reasonably.
“In the end our times were competitive so I think we can look forward to the rest of the weekend."
Having run ahead of his new illustrious stable-mate throughout the season-opening weekend in Bahrain, Rosberg maintained that advantage into opening practice in Melbourne as he finished 1.4s ahead of his fellow German in second place.
He only managed to improve that time by 0.2s in the rain-hit second session, however, and is not yet entirely satisfied with his W01’s set-up.
"The first session was ok this morning and we learnt some good things,” Rosberg said.
“This afternoon was a bit frustrating with the weather interruptions but we were still able to learn a good amount on the tyres which gives us some preparation for tomorrow.
“There are still some set-up issues to look at and improvements to make on the car so we have plenty of work to do overnight."
Speaking to reporters in the paddock later, Rosberg insisted that the team simply hadn’t managed to improve the set-up from first practice, rather than having gone backwards with it, and that he was confident things would improve for Saturday’s running.
“We didn’t really go the wrong way, but we didn’t really manage to improve this time,” he added.
“We know what we need to do and from that point of view it should be alright for tomorrow.
“It’s very difficult to say where we are in terms of general performance at the moment.”
