Ross Brawn has admitted his days as Mercedes team boss are numbered if he cannot power the German marque’s name to the top of formula one.

With the Brackley based team failing to live up to its billing as the reigning world champions with Michael Schumacher in the starring role, there have been widespread rumours about team harmony falling apart.

Brawn insists Schumacher is staying put and denies he is at odds with the German manager Norbert Haug, but acknowledges that he needs to deliver a much better silver car for 2011.

“Fourth position in the championship – and forget 2008 because that was the year I came to Honda and I couldn’t do anything about that – is probably the worst result I have had since I have been in senior management,” he told the Telegraph.

“And if the team continues running at a mediocre level then I probably won’t be running a team for much longer.  But the important thing is that I believe I know where we have gone wrong,” added Brawn.

He has explained this year’s problems as due to fighting in 2009 for the team’s survival as Brawn GP last year, whilst also pushing Jenson Button to the title.

“This business is all about spinning plates on the end of sticks.  And if you stop spinning them they fall off.  A few of our plates fell off last year.  Now we have put them back and we are spinning them,” he said.

Team figures are not hiding the fact that a major restructuring is about to take place, with one example being the rumoured drafting-in of Nico Rosberg’s former Williams engineer Tony Ross.

“My lips are sealed,” the German driver, who is currently engineered by Jock Clear, is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper.

“Anyway, we are moving in the right direction and nobody is being kicked out,” Rosberg insisted.