Mercedes may soon have to turn its attention to making some personnel changes within its British based F1 team.

That is the warning of the German marque’s competition director Norbert Haug, amid reports the Brackley outfit is now working almost exclusively on its 2011 car.

“We hope to return to success,” he is quoted by Autosprint.

“However, if we fail to achieve the goals we have set, we may have to change some people,” added Haug.

He is definitely not referring to Nico Rosberg, Mercedes’ most consistently competitive driver this season, or seven time world champion Michael Schumacher, who is firmly under contract for 2011 and keen to win an eighth title.

But former GP winner Gerhard Berger admits he has been increasingly disappointed with the 41-year-old German over the last few races.

“He has been taking more steps back than forward,” the Austrian is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“He has tried several strange tricks to gain points, and they have all come to nothing. Maybe he is putting himself under too much pressure,” added Berger.

Two former F1 drivers have defended Ferrari’s right to favour Fernando Alonso for the 2010 world championship.

The Italian team faced the wrath of spectators and the media recently after moving Felipe Massa out of the way for Spaniard Alonso at Hockenheim.

Ferrari will again be defending its actions at a World Motor Sport Council disciplinary hearing next month.

But Nelson Piquet Jr believes it is up to his Brazilian countryman Massa to prove that he is the driver Ferrari should be backing.

“It’s hard for Massa that Alonso came into the team later but is faster,” Piquet, who was Alonso’s Renault teammate in 2008 and early 2009, told the Brazilian newsmagazine Istoe.

“But Ferrari will not miss an opportunity to give a driver the opportunity to close the gap to the championship leaders,” added the ‘crashgate’ conspirator.

“If Massa doesn’t want this to happen, then he has to work out a way to go faster than Alonso — there’s nothing else he can do.

“Because if he’d been ahead of Alonso in the championship, it would have been him going past,” said Piquet.

Former 10-time GP winner and Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger agrees with Piquet that Alonso is the driver Ferrari should be concentrating on for the rest of 2010.

“Let’s not kid ourselves,” the Austrian is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

“Alonso is clearly the better man in the team; their only chance for the world championship.

“(Ferrari president Luca di) Montezemolo went shopping for him and he is going to play this card as hard as he can,” added Berger.

Jun.12 (GMM)  Leading bosses have rejected David Coulthard’s suggestion that formula one overturn its ban on team orders.

In the wake of the Turkish grand prix two weeks ago, it was reported that the controversies may have been triggered by Red Bull and McLaren trying to circumvent the prohibition of race-altering team instructions.

In Red Bull’s case, Mark Webber’s engine had been turned down ostensibly to save fuel, amid continuing rumours that the chasing sister car driven by Sebastian Vettel was temporarily running higher revs in the moments before their crash.

And teammates Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set hearts racing on the McLaren pitwall at Istanbul Park when they fought wheel-to-wheel despite being told to slow down and conserve fuel.

13-time GP winner and British commentator Coulthard said it is an “absurd situation whereby teams have to defend the indefensible”.

“Do they (team orders) happen in F1?  Yes, is the short answer,” the Scot wrote in his latest column for the Telegraph.

Coulthard, 39, argues not only that teams can easily steer around the team order ban, but that some sorts of instructions are legitimate.

Indeed, team orders were completely legal until 2002, when Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello was crudely ordered by then Ferrari team boss Jean Todt – who is now president of the governing FIA – to let Michael Schumacher win in Austria.

But while their lives may have been easier in Turkey if team orders were permitted, the bosses of Red Bull and McLaren said they would not support a push to overturn the ban.

“I think team orders are wrong,” Christian Horner said in Montreal.

“You employ professional drivers and we shouldn’t dictate how they drive the car.  I think it would be wrong to deny the public from what a grand prix should be about which is man and machine competing with each other,” said the Red Bull team principal.

His McLaren counterpart Martin Whitmarsh agrees.

“I think we’re happy with the regulations as they are.  I don’t mind if other teams want to (use team orders) and that’s up to them, but within our team, we’ve tried to treat all of our drivers with respect,” he said.

(GMM)  On the opening day of the fifth grand prix weekend of 2010, Michael Schumacher’s brother thinks the seven time world champion may have turned the corner.

6-time GP winner Ralf Schumacher, six years younger than the Mercedes driver, is in the Barcelona paddock this weekend as sporting boss of the GP3 team RSC Mucke.

Mercedes has heavily updated its 2010 car for the Spanish grand prix, including a longer wheelbase that is touted to suit 41-year-old Schumacher’s famous affection for strong front-end handling.

In morning practice, he was ahead of Nico Rosberg by more than three tenths, having been outpaced by the younger German in nearly every previous track session.

Schumacher looked comfortable and competitive once again in the afternoon.

“Here in free practice we have seen that everything for Michael looks a whole lot better,” Ralf told Sky television.

May 4 (GMM)  Gerhard Berger has backed Michael Schumacher amid a climate of continuing criticism of the seven time world champion’s performance so far in 2010.

Four races into 41-year-old Schumacher’s F1 comeback at the wheel of a Mercedes, the critique of pundits has ranged from a verdict of disappointment to a harsh denigration of his skills after three years of retirement.

“I find all the talk about Michael a bit tedious, because it is always with a negative slant,” 10-time GP winner Berger, who raced in Schumacher’s era until retiring in 1997, said on Austrian TV ‘Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar 7′.

“Michael has come back and is doing what he wants.  I think you cannot change the status of someone who is a seven time world champion,” added the 50-year-old former Ferrari and McLaren driver.

Austrian Berger backs Schumacher to improve his pace in the forthcoming races.

“We know his ambition.  We know that if he does something, he does it right.  I think we must take him seriously again in the future,” he said.

After the initial three races of 2010, Berger admits that Schumacher’s performance in China was a setback.

“It was weak, but that can happen,” said the former teammate of the late F1 great Ayrton Senna.

“I think he has done an excellent job so far — except for the last race.  In the first three grands prix he was in the top six of the championship.  That is a great achievement,” added Berger.

Also defending Schumacher is his countryman and friend Sebastian Vettel, who until the great German’s struggle in 2010 was nicknamed by the German press ‘Baby-Schumi’.

“He is yet to exhaust the potential of his car and will therefore get better from a driving point of view from race to race,” the Red Bull driver told Switzerland’s Motorsport Aktuell.

“I wouldn’t write him off for a long time,” added 22-year-old Vettel.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil also sees nothing odd about Schumacher’s comeback to date.

“I had counted on it being difficult for him.  Formula one has changed to the extremes in the past few years so that you can lose half a second and not know exactly why,” he told spox.com.

“Plus it would have been funny if Schumacher had beaten us all after three years of being retired — then he really would have been the god of F1.

“That doesn’t mean he’s doing badly; on the contrary, he’s always in the top ten.  He only needs time,” added Sutil.

Apr.22 (GMM) Two more of Michael Schumacher’s supporters have backed the seven time world champion amid his currently lacklustre 2010 return to formula one.

On Wednesday, Bernie Ecclestone and Norbert Haug hit out at the negative reports about Schumacher’s form in the W01 Mercedes, and now his younger brother Ralf Schumacher is asking the critics to “lay off a bit” and “stay fair”.

“He himself knew that, after a three-year break, he could not go in and win again straightaway like before,” 34-year-old Schumacher told the German daily Bild.

“But the expectations from outside were, of course, very big. Clearly Michael probably hoped to be somewhat nearer the front after four races.

“With regard to the times he is not so far away as the points make it seem. I believe a good result is soon possible,” added Ralf.

David Coulthard said in the German press after Shanghai that the weekend had been “the darkest” in the 41-year-old’s entire career.

But on Wednesday, ahead of his debut in the DTM series this weekend, Coulthard insisted it is “ridiculous” to write off Schumacher now.

Niki Lauda said after China that the German’s performance had been “mediocre” but he thinks it can be remedied with “practice, practice, practice”.

And another former GP winner Jochen Mass, who raced in the 70s and 80s, said he is neither “surprised nor disappointed” about Schumacher’s current form.

“No one should forget that he hasn’t driven for three years and could do hardly any testing,” he told Express.

“We might not see the old Michael back again, but he can still be very good, further forward in the rankings and with a little luck winning again,” added Mass.