Michael Schumacher has admitted that 2011 is shaping-up how the Mercedes team had hoped after an impressive winter testing period.
Mercedes GP, who bought out one-hit wonders, Brawn GP at the end of 2009, were up-beat over their chances this season after a strong testing period, however after 7 races, the German-based squad have yet to be on the podium with either of their drivers.
“Overall, it’s clear that the season up to now has gone worse than all of us had hoped,” Schumacher told Autosprint magazine.
Schumacher believes that the lack of pace is down to having to work on too many “work in progress” areas on the car at one time.
“We have several areas of work in progress,” Schumacher said when he was asked what had gone wrong. “As long as we worry about solving those, the development suffers.”
When asked what he, and the team, are drawing from all of this, the 7-time world champion said, “The positive thing about it is that this time we are able to take all these experiences and this knowledge towards next year.”
“All our attention is focused on building the team. That’s what we focus on at the moment, with no exception nor limitation.”