CLAWING BACK

Source: pitpass.com
By sessions
August 8 2011

After reading various articles it seems Ross Brawn is positive that the team is making progress, but not as quickly as expected which demonstrates just how difficult it is to be on the top rung of the ladder in Formula One.

I guess all F1 teams have high expectations leading into a new season, especially those who are representing a major company. Mercedes GP being one of them surely must project a positive outlook, but sadly so far this season they have garnered limited results. MGP is currently struggling in mid-field with Renault, Sauber, and Force India. Several stories report Mercedes has managed to maintain a measure on their mid-field rivals but have failed to work their way into the top level teams of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. At the same time Brawn does insist MGP has closed in on the leading trio. In a statement to Autosport, he said, “Obviously were still trying very hard,” but feels his outfit is not performing especially in the area of the exhaust diffusers. “We are about six months out of phase. If we had six months’ worth of performance developments in the car currently, we would be looking a lot better.”  The team would be doing some things differently, but we didn’t get onto the technologies around the exhaust early enough in terms of implications. We did try to optimize the car without those technologies which perhaps we might not have been done. You are balancing aerodynamics against weight distribution, centre of gravity and those sorts of things. Obviously it’s very complex and requires time to remedy.

At any rate it looks as though Mercedes will be trying to work through the clawing back deficit during the remainder of the season. Both Nico and Michael remain confident MGP is on track and improving. Nico’s last public statement is “Sure, the day will come in the not-too distant future when Mercedes GP are up front and fighting for race wins.”

We as race fans remain loyal, but are craving the day we will see some of the positive results we have constantly been told of are coming.