Ross Brawn explains reasons for Mercedes’ lack of pace in 2012 – Formula 1 news
Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn has said that the changes in their aerodynamic department along with some other technical alterations were the main reasons for their uncompetitive performance in 2012.
The Brackley based team had a very reliable pre-season testing programme last year in which they developed one of the most competent cars. Furthermore, their driver, Nico Rosberg even claimed his maiden victory in the Chinese Grand Prix held at Shanghai
International Circuit in China after securing his first ever pole position.
However, Rosberg and his teammate, Michael Schumacher faced a lot technical difficulties due to which they failed to keep up their consistency and couldn’t score competitive points for their team.
Brawn has said that they struggled during the last year because they could not make the necessary developments in their car during the season which made it very difficult for them to compete with their rivals.
“We made a decision to change the structure of the aero group. We had to wait for [new aero chief] Mike Elliot to join us because we had a notice period he had to fulfil at Lotus,” he is quoted as saying by Autosport.
Besides, he said that the departure of Loic Bigois, who was their head of aerodynamics, also had a great impact on their performance and they could not score promising points. In addition, he said that the double DRS and Coanda exhausts didn’t provide the
expected results.
“We concluded the situation with Loic and there was a gap that we didn't fill very well,” he said.
“On top of that we were doing the transition from 50 per cent to 60 per cent models in the windtunnel, and there were a lot of other things in the aero group as well. It did have an impact,” he added.
Even though, Mercedes faced huge problems in the preceding season. Nevertheless, Brawn has said that they are positively looking forward to deliver their best in the 2013 Formula 1 season and are aiming to make the most out of the winter testing.
It will be important to note that Lewis Hamilton has joined Mercedes as Schumacher’s replacement. Let’s see how the 2008 world champion performs alongside Rosberg this year.
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