Mercedes GP boss Ross Brawn is optimistic he has identified the areas the team must improve on next year’s car if it is to become a more competitive force.
The Brackley-based squad has fallen a long way short of its target of challenging for the world championship in its first year under Mercedes ownership, with it looking unlikely to achieve a victory before the end of the season having claimed just three podium finishes so far.
Brawn admitted earlier in the season that the squad’s ultimately successful push for the world championship last year had contributed to it producing a weaker 2010 car than it had hoped for.
The Briton though, speaking at Monza over the weekend, said he thought he now knew why the W01 hadn’t been up to scratch and that he had been encouraged by the development work going into the 2011 car to put these things right.
“Cars are born 12 months before they’re raced and when this car was born we had our focus on lots of things – survival of the company, we were trying to win the championship and we didn’t focus enough on this car,” Brawn said.
“But that’s the car we have now; [but] that’s not the balance that we are going to strike for next year.
“Our new car is well advanced. I can see lots of areas that we’re making progress in.
“Tyres will be the interesting thing for next year – people that make the best use of the tyres.
“We’ve got a pretty powerful tyre group. We’re working closely with [Mercedes parent company] Daimler and Daimler experts on how we can improve that side.
“I think I understand the reasons why we are where we are [this year] and I think I know the things we have got to do to be in a better position next year.
“But we’ll see.”
Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug says the German manufacturer would naturally have hoped for more from its first season back in team ownership – but says he understands the reasons why the Brackley team couldn’t devote as much time to the development of its 2010 car last year as would have been ideal.
He insists Mercedes as a company remains fully behind the project and that it was working together with its Brackley-based F1 operation to improve things for 2011.
“I think everybody would have wished to be further down the road in terms of competitiveness, but I think on the other hand lots of things were going on [last year] and the [Brawn GP] management team had to sort out a lot of things,” Haug said.
“If you remember it was very difficult to get an engine, to get the team running. Ross pointed out he never wanted to have a Brawn GP team basically, but in addition they won the world championship so then they needed to look for the future and this is where we are right now.
"What I think is absolutely positive is that we are in Formula 1, that we are committed as Mercedes-Benz of course. I am the first guy who would have wished for more podiums, for race wins, for whatever, but we are looking very carefully at what we have.
“We have great partners as sponsors. Our company is committed. Our board is committed.
“We need some time and we are working to get a race team in a very, very positive and constructive way. In a critical way [looking] to the inside absolutely, we need some time to restructure things.”
And while Mercedes is set to finish the 2010 a distant fourth at best in the constructors’ championship Haug continues to see a much brighter future, saying: “I am absolutely convinced that with hard work and dedication we will achieve our targets.
“We are composed working together and this is where we are. But we are going to be better next year, that’s for sure.”
In a bid to ensure it is fighting at the front at the first race of next season Mercedes has already shifted the majority of its focus onto 2011, and Brawn admits its competitiveness at the final five rounds of this year is likely to follow the same pattern as recent races.
“I don’t thing there’s any dramatic changes for us for the rest of the season,” he added.
“I think they’ll be weekends when we perhaps get everything together in a certain way that could help. But we obviously want to get both cars into Q3 and I think with the right balance, the car’s perfectly set up, we can do.
“So I think that’s about where we will be for the rest of the season. I don’t think the tracks we’ve got coming up will change things too much.”
