Mercedes Boss Believes W02 Is Not Top 10 Material

Even though Nico Rosberg topped the Sunday timing reports on the Circuit de Catalunya racetrack at the wheel of the Mercedes W02 – and admitted he was pleased with the direction in which Merc is going this off-season – there seems to be quite a debate on the matter within the Brackley based team.

Only hours before Rosberg put Mercedes on top in Barcelona, the German marque's motorsport director Norbert Haug told the media that he doesn't believe Ross Brawn has designed a car able to break the Top 10, as the situation presents itself right now.

“If there was a race today, we would not be in the Top 10,” said Haug in a recent interview with Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

Needless to say, the German boss made the necessary adjustments the next day, once he saw his driver Rosberg top the field in the W02. Asked to reevaluate the behavior of the 2011-spec Mercedes W02 after the Sunday running, Haug tried to find some explanations as to why the racer had been so much slower than the competition until a day back.

“We know that at the moment our car is not good enough for the Top 10, but we had been hampered by having to cut holes because of temperature problems, and also Nico had been without KERS,” he said, while revealing once again that his team will debut a brand new aero package prior to the season opening round in Bahrain.

“Our plan is that with our new aerodynamics package we close much of the gap and have the car good enough for the podium,” he concluded.