Ross Brawn, the Mercedes GP team principal, has play down their chances of defending their Formula One world title on the eve of the season-opening grand prix in Bahrain.
Mercedes are returning to F1 55 years after they last graced the sport, but the returning Michael Schumacher has blown hot and cold in recent weeks as to whether they can compete this year.
"Everyone at the team is proud to be representing the rich motorsport pedigree of Mercedes-Benz as we start the season as the first Mercedes works team for over half a century," Brawn, who captured both titles with his own team last year prior to Mercedes' takeover, said.
"In addition, knowing we go into the new season as the reigning world champions gives the team confidence and a fierce pride to defend our position"However, this is a new season and a new challenge. We had a strong pre-season testing programme with the car, but we have not quite reached the level of preparation we would have liked prior to Bahrain.
"The car shows promise and we have a strong development programme planned for the season, but there is a lot of hard work ahead to ensure we will be in the fight for the title."
Brawn's words are echoed by Norbert Haug, Mercedes motorsport boss. "Judging our competitiveness for the first couple of races, my impression is we are not quite where we want to be and I would not see our team in the role of favourites," Haug said.
"Having said that, I am fully convinced the whole team and our drivers Nico (Rosberg) and Michael are fully prepared to get on top of our job and fulfil our targets which are winning races and fighting for world championships."
Source:The Times
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