Reading: Mercedes team pin future F1 success on solving tyres problem

By Alex Kapadia

Mercedes are pinning their hopes on resolving a problem with their tyres which they believe is holding them back from winning Formula One races.

Drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher are confident that they will be able to achieve at least one Grand Prix victory in the final 10 rounds of the season if the tyres issue is resolved.

The Brackley-based team looks set to surrender the world titles it won last year under the Brawn name at the end of the season having been unable to compete at the front with Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.

Despite introducing a big update for last week’s European Grand Prix – including a blown diffuser and a further improved F-duct system – Mercedes slumped to its worst performance of the season as it missed Q3 altogether and then scored a single point in the race only after other cars ahead received time penalties.

However, the team is confident its car has much more potential than it is currently able to show as its competitiveness is being masked by performance problems with fresh tyres on low fuel – issues which have hampered it in qualifying at the past two races in particular.

After a poor performance in Valencia a Asked in Valencia last weekend, Rosberg denied the team was out of the running and insisted: “…it is still early days.

“[There are] A lot of different races coming, Monza which is also a very different track and places like that, where the occasional chance will [come] at least.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 6:01 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.