Ross Brawn has admitted the MGP-01 has slightly less pace than he had hoped. After dominating the start of the 2009 season with a car capable of outpacing it’s rivals, Brawn doesn’t expect the same to happen in 2010.
He told reporters that he expects “a super-hard battle” for the title.
“You saw in the beginning of testing that Ferrari were quite dominant but based on this test the teams are all pretty close,” Brawn said.
“We’re just a little bit off where we want to be but we’re close enough to be within reach.”
Many teams up and down the grid are expecting Mercedes to reveal a radical new diffuser in Bahrain, again stretching the rules as they did in ’09.
Alonso however reckons it’s just a wild rumour: “I do not know what Brawn will have in Bahrain, but we’ll see if it is really something new, for me, it is just a rumour, like many others,” said the Spaniard.
“We have a new package for Bahrain and I hope that makes the difference.” Brawn continued.
“The balance is getting better, there’s set-up and obviously efficiency counts. So the upgrade should bring predominantly an efficiency improvement and therefore a performance improvement.”
When asked to compare his two drivers, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, Brawn was coy on which he thought had performed best, blaming track conditions for blurring results.
“Until we get Michael and Nico on track at the same time it’s impossible to judge between the two of them.
“I don’t think they know where they are because conditions and tracks make comparisons different but I think both drivers are looking competitive.
“They both look very good. You don’t want to see either driver trailing behind and judging from the tests on different days they are close.”
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