Mercedes: Our feet are firmly on the ground 18 Apr 2012
Fresh from Nico Rosberg’s dominant win in China on Sunday, it would be easy for Mercedes to feel supremely confident ahead of this weekend’s 2012 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix. The German team, however, aren’t planning on swaggering into the paddock but are instead determined to stay level-headed in their approach to the Sakhir race.
"Last Sunday was a milestone for our team,” explained Norbert Haug, vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. “However, things move quickly in this business and our focus is now on preparing for the fourth race of the season in Bahrain.
“We are keeping our feet on the ground, because this year more than ever before in the history of Formula One, small details can take you from hero to zero - just three-tenths of a second separated P1 to P11 in qualifying last Saturday. We are taking nothing for granted, and will continue to work in a focused manner on extracting everything we can from our current technical package."
Despite being hotly tipped before the season began, Mercedes' F1 W03 struggled, particularly in terms of tyre wear, in the hotter temperatures at the opening two rounds in Australia and Malaysia. There’s no doubt that the cooler conditions in China helped them to victory, but team principal Ross Brawn is confident updates mean the car should cope with the warmer weather in Sakhir.
“The team have worked very hard to overcome the tyre issues that affected us at the first two races, and it is clear that achieving the optimum performance from the Pirelli tyres is absolutely key to our performance and ability to challenge at the front of the field,” explained Brawn. “The temperatures and track conditions in Bahrain will be very different to Shanghai, however we will work hard to extract the maximum performance from the F1 W03 and have another strong weekend."
Rosberg and team mate Michael Schumacher will be back on track from Friday.
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