Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn blames last minute upgrades for poor start to season
Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn claimed that the decision to delay the launch of their 2011 package, MGP W02, due to last minute upgrades, proved to be a wrong choice as it cost the team a lot of time in understanding the set-up. The German team didn’t
get an ideal start to the 2011 Formula 1 season after it had promised a lot in the final pre-season test at Barcelona.
Brawn stated, “Perhaps we will reflect back on our approach over the winter of turning up quite late with what was a definitive car, because perhaps we just did not understand, with so little time, the best ways of getting it to work. Now we are seeing the
best ways of getting it to work.”
The Englishman further added, “If you look at it last year, in the last five races we changed nothing with our car but we went faster. So there is a lot of time in cars in just understanding what they respond to, and how you set them up.”
The German team was able to produce a strong result in the Chinese Grand Prix after a dismal show in the first two races of the season in Australia and Malaysia. Both drivers, Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, finished amongst points, giving Mercedes
a total of 14 points in the race.
Mercedes have planned to bring in some upgrades to their package ahead of the the Turkish Grand Prix, which will take place on Sunday, May 8. The team will also install an updated rear wing, which will be a sigh of relief for Schumacher. The veteran driver
had been struggling to get consistency due to some technical issues with the previous wing of the W02.
Although Rosberg was able to qualify fourth on the grid in the last race, the seven-time Formula 1 champion managed only the 14th fastest time. His Drag Reduction System (DRS) failed him for the second race in a row, as he failed to reach Q3.
Apart from Mercedes, other top teams like McLaren and Ferrari brought upgrades to their car in the last part of the pre-season testing. However, all these teams struggled to match Red Bull at the start of the 2011 campaign.
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