Mercedes admits diffuser was distraction

Ross Brawn has confirmed that Mercedes failed to pay attention to the fundamentals while trying to hone its blown diffuser in Valencia.

Craig Llewellyn_1

11 Jul 2010

Race, Nico Rosberg (GER), Mercedes GP F1 Team, MGP W01
© PHOTO 4

Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn has admitted that the team's problems in the European Grand Prix could be attributed to its desire to get a version of Red Bull's 'blown diffuser' working as quickly as possible.

Speaking on the eve of the British Grand Prix, where both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher showed better qualifying form, Brawn accepted that the team had allowed itself to be distracted by the latest additions to the WO1, and actually went backwards.

"We had a number of problems which were very distracting over the weekend and we didn't do the fundamentals," he told reporters at Silverstone, "When you don't do the fundamentals, you slip behind a few tenths and that's it. You saw with McLaren yesterday, it's not an easy technology to get on top of."

Brawn, who won both titles with his eponymous team in 2009 before selling up to Mercedes, admitted that work was continuing on the system, with further evolutions scheduled to come online in coming races.

"I think, this weekend, we have learned a lot more about it, and we'll take another careful step with it in Hockenheim," he confirmed, "This weekend, we did a sensible job with the bits we have, whereas in Valencia we lost control of the situation - I lost control of the situation in terms of getting the best out of what we had. We could have ditched the system on Friday and gone back to something we knew, but we persevered and that probably cost us some performance in the race.

"We have now got everything working properly, so we are not wrapping wishbones in insulation and the sort of stuff we were having to do in Valencia. We have got those problems solved, touch wood, and are able to focus on getting the performance out of the car that's there."

After both missing the top ten in qualifying in Spain, Rosberg and Schumacher claimed fifth and tenth respectively at Silverstone, the German admitting to a mistake on his fastest lap, and Brawn is confident that points should be on the menu this weekend.

"It's not the fastest car on the circuit, but it's a pretty reasonable car," he noted, "In Valencia, we just didn't get that performance out of it. Here, we've made a better job."