Mercedes hopes for better results in 2011
Mercedes GP boss Norbert Haug hopes that the German car maker will pull through in the second half of the year after a disappointing start to the 2010 Formula One season. After buying out 2009 champions Brawn GP, Mercedes had hoped some of Brawn’s luck would rub off on them this season; but with the summer break almost half over and the team struggling to stay ahead of Renault in fourth place for the Constructor’s Championship it doesn’t look like another championship year for Mercedes.
“Of course, as we have often explained, we are not where we want to be, but in a way that's the name of the game in Formula 1 very often," Haug said. "I've been here for quite a while and Ross [Brawn] has been here longer but most of the time you spend improving and chasing the others.”
Not that Nico Rosberg’s three third places finishes are going unnoticed; Rosberg scored the team’s best finishes this year putting Mercedes 180 points behind Red Bull, the championship leaders. But über competitive Mercedes doesn’t want to play catch up, they want to win.
Trying to gain points on Red Bull is a waste of Mercedes’ resources according to Haug, who says their standings are “still not good enough...We have the ingredients, we have the team, we need to concentrate, focus and we are sticking together as a team. And if you are not doing that you are very soon history."
Despite the results they had wanted, Mercedes is still 100 percent behind the Formula One endeavour, and believes it is a good investment.
One positive for the team is that despite cutting down on their budget, while many other teams have had to back out of the expensive Formula One field, they are still seeing results, even if these results aren’t positive ones. "Sometimes a third place like at Silverstone is a little consolation, not when you want to win. But all in all I can say that we can get the job done."
Haug says the team can learn a lot from their manufacturers, who struggled with the economic downturn, “There was a crisis in the automobile industry and we came out of that crisis. We have record sales, we have better products than ever and I think that's a good example.”
But ultimately Haug admits that if they are unable to achieve the desired results the team will have to undergo some changes.
So far this year, Rosberg has earned 94 points and is in seventh place for the Driver’s Championship while team-mate and seven time world champion Michael Schumacher has earned 38 points for Mercedes and is in ninth place.
Recently Schumacher has brought a lot of bad press to the Mercedes team after his dare-devil stunts almost caused a serious crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix. While barrelling down the track on the final laps of the race Schumacher steered his Mercedes GP car towards former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello, forcing him up against the pit wall in an attempt to stop Barrichello from passing him.
Schumacher is no stranger to aggressive driving tactics but the move he pulled on Barrichello, described by the Brazilian driver as a “death wish”, was one of his more risky ones. Schumacher’s desperate attempts to earn an eighth championship title endangered himself and fellow drivers, and should have been a wake up call that this year it isn’t going to happen.
But before Mercedes starts firing drivers, the manufacturers will look ahead to next year’s races. When the mandatory summer factory shut-down is over, Mercedes will stop trying to develop their current car and will begin focusing their efforts on developing a better car for 2011.
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