“The biggest challenge for us so far has been a cooling problem,” admitted Brawn in a recent interview posted on Mercedes GP's website. “The short-term modifications that we made to the launch-specification car cost a reasonable amount of performance.”
“The solution has been incorporated into the bodywork design for our upgrade package and will recover that performance before the first race,” he added.
Earlier this week, both race driver Nico Rosberg and Mercedes motorsport director Norbert Haug revealed to the media that the team will debut a brand new package during the last group test of the off-season, scheduled on March 8-11 in Barcelona, aimed specifically at increasing the racer's performances.
Rosberg actually insisted upon the fact that the initial package launched by Mercedes was focused on reliability – therefore aimed at allowing the car to do plenty of mileage in testing – while the second will likely help Merc close the gap on 2011 favorites Red Bull and Ferrari.
Talking about this particular aspect of his team's development programme prior to the season start, Brawn echoed those thoughts and added that he feels comfortable with how his car has reacted so far.
“Our intention was always to launch the car in a fairly basic specification to allow more time to focus on the upgrade package. This inevitably means that we look further off the pace than people might expect. Knowing all of the facts, I am comfortable with our current position and the developments that we have to come.”
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