Michael Schumacher has set out his stall for a much more competitive car in 2011.

After three years of retirement, the 41-year-old struggled this year alongside his younger teammate Nico Rosberg, but neither were able to win with the W01.

Schumacher has a contract with Mercedes GP for 2011 and also 2012, but the German admitted to Swiss newspaper Blick that he needs to be pushing further up the pack as soon as possible.

“There is really only one goal, and that’s winning,” said the seven time world champion.

“The team won the world championship last year, so it’s pretty hard for everyone to have a season like we had.

“Of course from my side it’s important to identify the weaknesses, but I didn’t have to put my finger into the wound to wake people up — that is done automatically with the results.

“So we are extremely motivated to come into a position to be able to win. This is the basic requirement; I said already at the start that I don’t want to drive around in the middle (of the field),” insisted Schumacher.

Although also not happy with 2010, arguably the only winner at Mercedes this year was Rosberg, who by beating Schumacher showed his potential for wins and titles.

“He (Schumacher) is a very high profile teammate and I’m obviously happy to have been ahead of him,” the 25-year-old is quoted by Auto Bild.

Like Schumacher, Rosberg is hopeful of a better 2011 but acknowledges the scale of the task.

“Sooner or later it will happen, but we can’t forget that the gap we have to the front is quite big,” he insisted.

Bernie Ecclestone observes that Mercedes’ results in 2010 make it difficult to assess the performances of both Schumacher and Rosberg.

“Put him (Schumacher) in one of the Red Bulls and then see what happens,” the F1 chief executive wrote in the foreword to the Official Formula 1 Season Review 2010.

“But then we don’t know how good Rosberg is. Maybe Rosberg in a Red Bull would beat all of them,” mused Ecclestone.

Team boss Ross Brawn takes the Mercedes-good benefits from the fact that one understands the vote better, and can optimize performance.

In the last race, Mercedes has well presented, although the development of the W01 is set for a long time and the concentration to 2011. Team boss Ross Brawn sees the good form the fruits of efforts to improve the car and the structures within the team. Michael Schumacher missed the podium but in South Korea, but the speed of Nico Rosberg was up to the involuntary loss of strong and a podium would have been possible.

“We are making progress. It probably took longer than expected, but we see really good progress,” Brawn is of ‘Autosport’ quotes. “We do everything together for next year. Now we get everything to work properly. The F-shaft is good and we have the highest speed on the straights. We do not change many things, but to understand how we need to tune the car. It is a consolidation and a lesson. ”
When asked whether the team will benefit in the coming year, Brawn replied. “Maybe I do not think things can be transferred directly, but we have learned over the past few races a lot.

In South Korea, Rosberg could have the first time in Silverstone again climb on the podium. “He was very happy with the car, but I will not speculate. He was doing very well, has felt the car well and might have looked very strong.”

The design of Mercedes’ 2011 car is already in the wind tunnel and “more innovative” that its disappointing predecessor.

That is the claim of the German marque’s Norbert Haug, one day after team boss Ross Brawn admitted the W01 was designed too conservatively amid Brawn GP’s 2009 title challenge.

“The prototype of the new car is in the wind tunnel,” Haug told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “It will be more innovative, the result of taking more risks.

“The development of the current car is finished, so our engineers have more time to perhaps pursue some ideas that initially might seen outlandish.

“At the same time, our competitors are designing their new cars for 2011 whilst still fighting hard for this world championship,” added Haug.

In the same interview, the German also scotched reports he is at loggerheads with Brawn.

Working in the same office as his British colleague in the team’s offices at Yeongam, Haug insisted: “Does it look as though we cannot work with one another?”

However, much more pressing is the speculation that – at the end of another disappointing season next year – the team’s parent Daimler might pull the plug.

“Absolutely not,” Haug insists. “We certainly do not intend to be in the midfield, but no one at Mercedes is talking about quitting.”

Asked what he needed for success this weekend, Nico Rosberg’s jovial answer might have raised eyebrows within his Mercedes team garage.

“A Red Bull,” laughed the German.

“The car, not the drink,” added Rosberg, musing the dominance of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at Suzuka so far while his own W01 looks at least a second off the pace.

Williams’ Rubens Barrichello also predicts an easy margin for the Adrian Newey-inked RB6 car.

“For me, the Red Bulls will be a good half a second in front,” said the Brazilian.

If Ferrari and McLaren are unable to keep up in Japan, pole and victory is therefore likely to be contested by the two Red Bull drivers.

“I find what’s happening incomprehensible,” said Webber’s manager Flavio Briatore in the Italian press, angry that Red Bull is not ordering Vettel to play a Felipe Massa-style supporting role.

Australian Webber’s own needle is more subtle, quietly questioning his teammate’s decision to use a new white helmet livery this weekend.

“He always has bad luck when he uses a new helmet,” Webber joked.

But so far, the 2009 Suzuka pole sitter and winner is once again obviously enjoying the Japanese layout.

“I was running around the track and I thought ‘Why can’t they all be like this?’” smiled Vettel.

2011 is Michael Schumacher’s last chance to prove to Mercedes he is still competitive enough to be in formula one.

That is the claim of Europe’s best selling newspaper, the tabloid-style Bild Zeitung.

German Schumacher, 41, agreed a three-year deal with Mercedes GP before returning from retirement to formula one in 2010.

Despite intense media pressure due to his disappointing season so far, the seven time world champion insists he will be back in the silver car in 2011.

“Bild knows: there is a deadline for Schumi,” the newspaper report said.

“If he is still behind in 2011, then his Mercedes time is up — three year contract or not.”

Team boss Ross Brawn is quoted as saying: “With Nico (Rosberg), I’m happy.  Now we expect progress from Michael, who is not yet at his best.”

Bild pointed out that at the 15 grands prix of Schumacher’s 2010 comeback so far, Rosberg has outqualified his famous teammate 12 times.

And Rosberg, 25, has 122 points, compared with Schumacher’s 46.

“I would prefer if they regularly beat one another.  It is not good when one driver is usually behind the other,” added Brawn.

Brackley based Mercedes GP is already fully focused on the disappointing W01′s 2011 successor.

“I am confident that our basic package will be much better,” said Brawn.

Mercedes has denied it is building a car especially tailored to Michael Schumacher’s driving style for the 2011 season.

The seven time world champion has struggled on his return to formula one this season, with a car designed essentially by Brawn when the Brackley based team thought Jenson Button would be driving it.

Schumacher has openly written off the rest of the 2010 campaign, amid suggestions he is waiting for the W01′s successor that will be tailored to his driving style.

“We are not building a car around Michael; we just want to develop a good car,” team boss Ross Brawn is quoted by the SID news agency.

“There is no special characteristic,” he insisted.

But Brawn had already acknowledged at Monza that Schumacher’s 2011 campaign depended in part on “how good the Pirelli tyre is” next year.

Schumacher commented: “I cannot remember a car that was designed to a specific style of driving.

“The only thing is a continuous development with the drivers, which can go in certain directions. But first of all it’s about making the car as fast and as efficient as possible,” he added.

Brawn said the gestation period of the 2010 car means it will never be a race winner, but he is hopeful about the future.

“We think we understand why we are where we are with this car,” said the Briton.

Brawn’s fight for survival affected the design process of the 2010 Mercedes car, according to Michael Schumacher.

Despite aiming for the world championship with the W01, Mercedes GP is a distant fourth in the constructors’ standings, a year after the same Brackley based team won the 2009 titles before being sold to the German marque.

“Ross (Brawn) was busy last year with quite a few other things, like securing the future of the team. So he could not fully concentrate on the development of the (2010) car,” Schumacher is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“I can live with the situation even if I am not happy about it,” added the seven time world champion. “We have to recognise the reasons.”

Michael Schumacher insists that his struggle to get up to speed in his formula one comeback season is due to Mercedes’ 2010 car.

The seven time world champion is just ninth in the drivers’ championship after 12 races, 56 points behind his teammate Nico Rosberg and yet to stand on the podium.

“Looking at the points table then of course we cannot be satisfied,” German Schumacher, 41, told his sponsor DVAG in an interview.

“But there are reasons why the deficit is so great,” he explained.

Brackley based Mercedes GP was purchased by the German marque from 2009 drivers’ and constructors’ champions Brawn, and according to Schumacher it is for this reason that the W01 is not performing well.

Jenson Button said recently that the car, with a tendency to understeer rather than provide Schumacher with the ‘pointy’ front that he desires, was designed for him before he decided to switch to McLaren.

Schumacher confirmed: “This is the car that was put into our hands.

“It is a remnant of what was created last year,” he explained. “As a result there are many compromises that the driver has to deal with.

“The car is not at all in harmony with the tyres, or also with us as the drivers,” said the record winner of 91 grands prix.

Mercedes has now effectively turned its development attention to the 2011 car.

“We have to ensure that the (new) car blends correctly with the drivers, and we are on the right track to be competitive in 2011,” Schumacher continued.

“We are working harder than ever so that we can go for the titles.”

Mercedes GP has played down reports it has cancelled further development of its 2010 formula one car due to budget considerations.

The major German daily Bild reportedly said the Brackley based team’s focus has switched to the W01′s successor because this year’s budget is depleted.

A team spokesman told Sport1: “Our current car is developed, and the development of the 2011 car is well underway.”

It is also reported in Germany that Mercedes GP will soon have to replace its reserve driver Nick Heidfeld, because the 33-year-old is expected to commence his new role as Pirelli’s permanent tyre tester within the month of August.

According to well-known French commentator Jean-Louis Moncet, a notable meeting involving the Mercedes GP team took place on Monday.

Moncet wrote in his Auto Plus blog that the video conference would involve the Stuttgart based Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche, and the Brackley based team’s Ross Brawn, Norbert Haug, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

He said the “various statements by members of the team to the media” would be discussed, even though a Mercedes spokesman rubbished the report.

And although Mercedes insists the comments were taken out of context, Moncet could be referring to Rosberg’s quoted claims about being frustrated by a lack of development progress.

There have also been hints from Rosberg, Schumacher and Brawn that development of the 2010 car could be stopped in favour of focusing on next year’s project.

But in a team statement late last week, those figures insisted the team is still working hard on the W01.

“It’s been tough for us over the last few races but we are working hard to improve and I am confident we will get there,” said Rosberg.

However, a headline in the German daily Die Welt said “Expectation and reality are far apart at Mercedes”.

The article included Zetsche’s warning of early this year when he said that “If there are clear indications that we can use our money more effectively outside of formula one, we will have to take a new decision”.

And former Jordan and Jaguar designer Gary Anderson said: “The people around Brawn understand the car they have built for 2010 in the same way they understood it in the second half of last year.”

But Bernie Ecclestone thinks Mercedes needs more time to get up to speed with its own team.

“Of course it takes a bit of time to revive a myth, but I am sure they are on the right track and that the Silver Arrows will come back to full strength,” said the F1 chief executive.

(GMM)

A Mercedes spokesman on Friday said quotes attributed to Nico Rosberg by a German tabloid newspaper were taken out of context.

25-year-old Mercedes GP driver Rosberg reportedly said the 2010 car was a “disaster”, while he is “angry” about the “backwards” development of the W01.

But the spokesman, revealing that he has spoken to Rosberg who is upset about the newspaper’s sensationalism, insisted that the German has “nothing but admiration” for both Mercedes and team boss Ross Brawn.

Rosberg, currently seventh in the drivers’ world championship, is also “completely happy with the Silver Arrows team”, the Mercedes-Benz Motorsport spokesman added.

Nico Rosberg has described the W01 as a “disaster”, as Mercedes moves closer to abandoning development of its 2010 car.

The 25-year-old German again outqualified his famous teammate Michael Schumacher at Valencia, but his prize was a mere twelfth on the grid.

He then scored no points in the race, despite the Brackley based team – winners of the 2009 world championship as Brawn GP – using a raft of improvements in Spain, including a Red Bull-like blown rear exhaust layout.

Rosberg was angry immediately after the race, and a week later has told the Cologne publication Express: “It’s a disaster.

“The problem with the tyres is well known to the team.  For weeks we have said we are coming to the front, but nothing happens — actually we go backwards.”

Rosberg admits he is “angry” with the situation.

“If you’re twelfth, behind both Williams – who two weeks ago were nowhere – what do you expect?  I went from Williams to Mercedes because I thought I would have a winning car.”

Boss Ross Brawn said the team will continue to work on the W01, but admitted the time will come for a new approach.

“We have not done a good enough job,” admitted the Briton.

“First we need to get our new aero package working properly, and depending on the result we will decide to what extent we then concentrate on next season,” added Brawn.
(GMM)

Nico Rosberg is adamant the time is not right for Mercedes to give up on the 2010 world championship.

The Brackley based team raced a major car upgrade in Valencia last weekend, including a Red Bull-style ‘blown rear diffuser’ and exhaust layout.

But it was yet another bad weekend for the team, and team boss Ross Brawn admitted he would now “reflect, assess and see what our next steps should be”.

According to Rosberg, that next step should not be abandoning the W01 in order to focus completely on the 2011 car.

“We still have many opportunities for development,” he said in an interview with Sport Bild.  “Other top teams, for example, have things that we can develop quite simply.

“That is what we are doing,” said the German.

Michael Schumacher has admitted he is now beginning to think about next year, but the seven time world champion has less than half the points of his younger teammate.

“I am absolutely against that (giving up on 2010),” answered Rosberg, who turned 25 on the day he finished 12th in Valencia.

“I still believe in my chances.  If the championship leader Hamilton fails just once and I win, I will almost be at his level,” he added.

(GMM)

The time is nearing for Mercedes to write off the 2010 season.

That is the opinion of triple world champion and famous German-language pundit Niki Lauda, after watching both W01s fail to qualify in the top ten at Valencia.

The Brackley based team had taken a substantial upgrade package to the Spanish port city, but now look unlikely to score good points while Nico Rosberg trails the championship lead by 35 points.

“At some point, maybe in two or three races, one should say ‘stop, let’s get on and build a car for next year,” Lauda said on German television Sky on Saturday.

Team boss Ross Brawn said after qualifying that Mercedes needs to “reflect, assess and see what our next steps should be”.

But Mercedes’ competition chief Norbert Haug said that does not mean the German team is giving up.

“We will certainly not give up on improving our package as we have done continuously since the season began but our competitors have been doing the same,” he said.

(GMM)

Renault and Mercedes will join Ferrari in debuting Red Bull-style ‘low exhausts’ at this weekend’s European grand prix.

We reported earlier this week that McLaren is also looking to emulate the unique rear layout of Red Bull’s impressive 2010 car design.

Ferrari’s F10 car is equipped with its heavily updated car for Valencia, while McLaren and Williams look more likely to be ready by Silverstone.

We reported on Monday that Mercedes’ W01 car might be running the Red Bull-like layout this weekend, and the news has now been confirmed by BBC Sport.

But referring to the layout, the report said the German team is “not expected to use theirs in the race”.

Earlier reports also said Renault has a similar upgrade in the works, and the BBC confirmed that the team has its own version of the exhausts “in Valencia”.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso denied he had learned much about the updated F10 during a filming and promotional test at Fiorano last week.

“I think tomorrow (at Valencia) we’ll have a better answer,” the Spaniard told reporters in the Spanish port city on Thursday.

“We expect some step in the car, a little bit quicker but all the other teams will bring new parts here,” added Alonso.

(GMM)