Nico Rosberg says Mercedes has improved despite lack of pace at the end of 2012 – Formula 1 news
Nico Rosberg has insisted that his team, Mercedes AMG, has shown improvement despite a lack of pace during the second half of the 2012 F1 season.
“The improvement is massive,” Rosberg said. “Unfortunately we haven't seen it much in the second half of the season, but in the first part of the season we had the fastest car in two races - China and Monaco. That's the improvement. We're making progress;
we're getting better. If you would walk through the factory today, you would see a massive improvement compared to three years ago. The amount of competence that has joined us, the way everything is joined together, it's really making huge steps and that's
why next year I'm sure will be better for us again.”
However, Rosberg admitted that it took more time than they had expected to show this progress. He said that the team had been hoping of bringing a championship challenge by now but they could not and were quite far away from that target this past season.
Rosberg said that despite everything, they have learnt from the mistakes of 2012 and that is the reason he thinks the beginning of 2013 will be better for Mercedes.
Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn, had similar comments earlier this month. He said that their hope for improvement in 2013 is justified as they are putting more work into the car; have brought new people to the team and have upgraded the facilities.
Mercedes had formed its first ever Formula 1 team since 1955 in 2010. Since then the team has not been able to show much progress. Rosberg’s race victory in China this past season remains the only Grand Prix victory for the team. Rosberg’s teammate for these
three years had been Michael Schumacher who retired from F1 at the end of the 2012 F1 season.
Schumacher had joined the team with a three year deal in hopes of an eighth F1 championship but the car failed to support him. Following the retirement, Rosberg’s new teammate for 2013 F1 season will be former champion, Lewis Hamilton.
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