by Pablo Elizalde Wednesday, January 26th 2011, 11:14 GMT
Michael SchumacherThe Mercedes GP team has played down the significance of Michael Schumacher's problems with the German squad's simulator.
Schumacher has been unable to spend long stints in the simulator as he is suffering from sickness when using it.
The team said it was a problem that has affected him often during his career.
However, Mercedes claimed that Schumacher is not disadvantaged by it, despite the lack of testing allowed during the year.
The team also said it is working on much more realistic simulation technology that will be ready shortly.
"Throughout his career, Michael from time to time has been susceptible to simulator sickness which has affected the length of time that he can spend on a simulator," Mercedes said on Wednesday.
"This is a relatively common occurrence for many people in all fields of simulator activity including military, aircraft and racing cars.
"Michael has not been disadvantaged as together with his engineers he has made his simulation work effective."
The team added: "The simulator is one of a number of tools which drivers use to prepare for the race weekend and the condition has not adversely affected Michael's race preparation or his competitiveness with regard to his team-mate. The situation has been exacerbated by the level of our current simulator technology.
"For many reasons, we have invested in higher-quality and more realistic simulation equipment which will be completed and available for our drivers shortly."
