The Ross Brawn approach: slow and steady
It would be something of an understatement to suggest that team boss of Mercedes GP, Ross Brawn, has been mildly unhappy with the performance of his 2010 car. Previously deriding its design as “too conservative”, in many interviews he bemoaned the fact
that a lack of funding and the confusion from Honda’s retreat from the F1 sphere were responsible for the car’s poor performance on this year’s tour.
However, recent events at the Korean Grand Prix have caused Brawn to alter his tune. The team’s prudent and crafty decision to modify its set-up to be better prepared for wet surfaces paid dividends on the slippery Yeongam surfaces. With Michael Schumacher
finishing as a strong fourth, Mercedes GP could have seized another podium finish if Mark Webber had not taken out Nico Rosberg when he spun across the track after his early crash.
"We are getting there," said an optimistic Brawn after the race. "It has probably taken a bit longer than we expected, but we keep seeing these really good bits of progress, and we are putting everything together for next year."
Mercedes GP made the fateful decision this year to cut its losses by halting development on this year’s car so it could focus all its energies on crafting a highly innovative and daring machine for the 2011 season. In spite of this decision, refinements
are still being made to the current vehicle. As the team becomes more familiar with the car’s inner workings and despite lacking a commitment of resources, Brawn acknowledges that Mercedes engineers are still refining ways to extract speed from the current
machine.
"We are just getting everything working properly," said Brawn. "The F-duct is good, and we have the fastest straight-line speed now. We are not changing many things, just understanding how to set the car up, and it is really just consolidation, which is
a lesson."
Although unhappy with the current car, it has certainly outperformed Brawn’s exacting expectations. Reluctant to speculate, the team boss admitted that were it not for the unfortunate Webber incident, Rosberg could have easily finished second in Korea.
However, observing that the word if is “FI spelt backwards,” Brawn is focusing his attention on the final two races where he believes that his team will chalk up impressive results, despite the short-comings of the current car’s ‘conservative’ design.
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