Saturday, March 05, 2011

GreenBkk.com Formula 1 | No panic at Mercedes despite one second gap

No panic at Mercedes despite one second gap


Michael Schumacher is still supportive despite the W02 being one second off the pace © Sutton Images

Mercedes GP CEO Nick Fry insists his team is not yet panicking about its apparent lack of pace, but did admit it is currently benefitting from the longer build up to the first race now the Bahrain Grand Prix has been cancelled.

Mercedes has made no secret of its struggles in pre-season testing and Ross Brawn has revealed that the car is "about a second off where we want to be, which is at the front." The team has struggled with overheating and resorted to cutting holes in the bodywork at recent tests in order to boost its mileage.

A new aerodynamic package for the final test is set to remedy those problems and Fry said the team was confident it could join the leading pack.

"Performance, obviously from what we've seen on the track, at the moment is not as good as we would like," he told Reuters. "But I think there are two major reasons for that. One is that the car did have some cooling issues and has been running with a very sub-optimal cooling package and aerodynamic package, and that is [worth] a significant amount of time.

"Secondly, we went in [to testing] with a slightly different strategy of having what we called the basic car to start with and what we think will be a significant upgrade for the first race. So we knew we were going to be not the quickest, let's put it that way.

"We are not panicking, we have a plan, we're sticking to it and I think that we will be in a reasonable shape by the time we get to Australia."

With the first race now taking place on March 27 in Australia rather than March 13 in Bahrain, where political turmoil has resulted in the race being called off, Fry said the team had more time to get the car in shape.

"The truth of the matter is that the extra time has helped everyone, possibly with the exception of Ferrari who seem to be going very well and very reliably from the start," Fry said. "It would be untruthful to say it's not been a help -- it's been a help to us and I suspect to many of the other teams as well. I think the good news is that the reliability is coming."

He also played down reports that seven-time champion Michael Schumacher was frustrated by the car's early teething problems.

"Michael understands the situation and all racing drivers want to be the fastest from the start. That's in their nature," Fry said. "The feedback I've got is that Michael's application during testing has been fantastic and he's been doing a great job developing the car. We are all working together and the proof of the pudding will be in Australia."

Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)

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