Mercedes weren’t good enough when it came to the development race against its rivals, motorsport boss Norbert Haug admits.
The Anglo-German outfit started the season in stong form after Nico Rosberg took their first win at the third round of the year in China. That form continued with pole in Monaco for Michael Schumacher (though he was later demoted following a penalty). However things started to go downhill as their rivals began to outdevelop the Brackley based team.
Haug says the win proves they built a good car to begin, but failed to maintain the necessary momentum to keep up.
“I think the team showed last year that over the winter we built quite a good car, but definitely since the middle of the season in the development race we have not been good enough and, in hindsight, we should have started much earlier with Coanda exhaust because it gives you a benefit if you can manage it properly,” said the German.
Whilst McLaren and Red Bull started the season with their own versions of the Coanda effect exhaust system, it took up until round 14 in Singapore for Mercedes to debut their own, which compounded their tyre problems.
“Maybe in our case we also suffered a little bit from rear tyre stuff, with them being too hot and probably not having enough downforce. Then in addition the Coanda has probably just accelerated these problems. So we did not handle it in the best possible way. That’s not an excuse but an explanation,” he added.
Haug also highlighted the closure of their wind tunnel – in order to upgrade it for 2013 – didn’t help their cause.
“Switching from 50% to 60% [model scale] which is absolutely what you have to do, costs you time of six to eight weeks in the wind tunnel when you cannot continuously work.
“This did not help us either, but you have to do that now otherwise you will suffer next year.”
