Mercedes GP’s Nick Fry: Upgrade package not as quick as we expected – Formula 1 news
Mercedes GP’s chief executive officer Nick Fry has admitted that the new package of the team was not as quick as they had expected.
He added that since the new functions have been installed in the new MGP-W02 car, they should have given very positive results to the team during the Formula 1 testing.
Fry accepted that there were two major reasons for their package failure. He said, “One is that the car did have some cooling issues and has been running with a very sub-optimal cooling package and aerodynamic package, and that is (worth) a significant amount
of (lap) time.”
He went on to say, “Secondly, we went in (to testing) with a slightly different strategy of having what we called the basic car to start with and what we think will be a significant upgrade for the first race. So we knew we were going to be not the quickest,
let's put it that way.”
During the pre-season tests, the team was very confident about their new car that it will perform very well but their upgrade package presentation was not competitive for the top teams of the sport.
Other than car issues, the team boss also discussed Michael Schumacher’s performance. He praised the seven-time world champion’s performance because his progress was good over the sessions. Fry said that he is a person in the Mercedes team who quickly understands
the situation of the race and adopts the best strategy. He said it is his nature to be fast at the start of the race.
Schumacher tried his best to set the pace of the new MGP-W02 car during the testing sessions but due to some mechanical problems with the car, could not manage the best position for the team.
Still the team is expected a lot from their both team drivers, Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. On the other hand, Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug recently said that the failure of the upgrades was not a big hurdle and they will overcome it soon.
The Mercedes GP team is looking forward to a successful upcoming season that is expected to begin on March 27, 2011 in Australia.
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