Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug thinks they are half a second off pace – Formula 1 news
Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug has said that they are half a second off pace as compared to the contenders in the front.
The Brackley based team has not been able to attain competitive results in the last two races as they struggled with the lack of pace and the issue of tyre degradation. Moreover, they appeared to be quite off the pace as compared to the teams which include
Lotus, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.
Haug said that they must make the considerable enhancements so as to fight back in the next half the current season. In addition, he said that they have got the potential in their talented and experienced pair of drivers, Nico Rosberg who claimed an inspiring
victory in the Chinese GP and Michael Schumacher who set the fastest time during the qualifying in Monaco GP and secured a striking podium finish in the European GP.
“The verdict on the first half of our season would be: 'much achieved, much still to do',” Haug said. “We have been the pace-setters at a number of race weekends and Nico [Rosberg] scored the first win for our new Silver Arrow works team in China, while
Michael [Schumacher] set the fastest time in a prestigious qualifying session in Monaco and Nico then finished second in the race. Two races later, in Valencia, Michael also scored a podium finish.”
He added, “The last two races have shown that we currently lack around half a second a lap to the pace-setters”.
Although, he admitted that they are currently suffering with the problem of limited pace. Nonetheless, he said that everyone in the team is making the best of the efforts to enhance the performance of their car W03 for the season ahead.
At present, Mercedes are standing at fifth place in the constructors’ rankings with 105 points. Besides, they are behind Lotus and are ahead of Sauber. Over and above, they are trying their best to narrow the gap to the teams in the front and it will be
very interesting to see how they show up in the approaching races.
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