Motivation at its peak - Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher (Part 1)
The Mercedes team boss, Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher have been the stars of the most dominant reign by any team in the Formula 1. The two legends won five consecutive titles together at Ferrari but now have a mountain to climb before they can even consider
achieving something like that with their new team Mercedes GP. Ross Brawn thinks that Michael did the right thing by returning to the Formula 1 and is convinced that Mercedes and the 7 time world champion will be much stronger next season.
Ross Brawn was in a good mood and laughed as he thought that he had some days off to relax but did not think about improving the Mercedes in his rose garden or fly-fishing. This season was quite demanding and tough for the teams but after these small successes,
the motivation level of Ross Brawn boosted and the team boss claims he is even more motivated right now than last year now as it looked clear that the team will win both titles back then.
Brawn is quite a realist and since he has been in the business for a long time now, he is aware that frustration can sometimes play a huge part in the sport. “Formula One is a very competitive business. A few tenths can decide if a season was a success or
a failure. We had decided by mid-season that we would rather concentrate on the future - meaning the 2011 car”, he said.
Ross thinks that the main reason for Mercedes’ failure is that the car was being developed when the team was in its reconstruction phase, Ross had to take over team Honda by the end of 2008, the team had to downsize their headcount by 100, and it took quite
some time until Mercedes was operational again. At the same time, the team focussed to win the championship and that is why Ross decided to invest less than the team had to on this year’s car. Right now, the team is confident that they are in a good state
as compared to Ferrari and Red Bull. As Mercedes is already substantially smaller as compared to Ferrari, Ross is optimistic for the future.
The top teams are currently fighting for the championship while Mercedes is already focussed on next year’s car. Yes, since the top teams did not downsize yet, they have more labor to develop next year’s car but that will not make much difference, as they
still have to split their resources for these two years. Ross believes that Mercedes does not have any sort of “advantage” and time can only answer these questions.
Michael Schumacher has been beaten by his teammate too often and this does not necessarily mean that Michael will win races again even if he is given a car. However, Brawn thinks it is not as simple as that. Michael’s driving style depends a lot on a strong
front tyre that can withstand his hard braking and the steering manoeuvres he prefers while Nico has understood the front tyres better this year. “I have to say that this year’s front tyre is very uncommon. That stems from the fact that the FIA wanted to promote
KERS and had asked Bridgestone to develop tyres that would fit a certain weight distribution and thus create a specific tyre characteristic”, he explained.
Mercedes does not blame Bridgestone for Schumacher’s failure. The team boss praised Nico says he is a fantastic driver and a real benchmark. Michael was just not able to adjust to the tyres but next year, the team expects that Pirelli will work better for
Michael’s driving style and it will be interesting to see who the quicker driver in the team is after that.
It seems that Mercedes is prepared for the next season and it will be interesting to see their strategy in every aspect next year.
Tags: