Schumacher Admitted Merc Hasn't Laid All Their Cards Yet

Michael Schumacher revealed that, while not expecting any race wins in the early stages of the 2010 Formula One championship, the level of performance of his team's W01 model is likely to surpass his rivals' expectations in Bahrain. Previewing this weekend's race on his official website, the 41-year old racer admitted that Mercedes GP kept some of its developments out of the media's reach during the February testing season.

“The car has not been completely at the level of other teams' cars at the end of the tests, true, but the amount of fuel was massively influencing this impression. It seems we were driving more fuel than others most of the time,” said Schumacher on the performances of his car during the tests in Spain.

“Our car also has not been at the final configuration - something we had deliberately wanted. We wanted to use the two weeks development time between the last test and the race in Bahrain,” added the German driver, while reckoning that the majority of the teams avoided laying all their cars down in testing.

As for his goals for the 2010 season, Schumacher has no doubt in his mind about the reason he decided to come back to Formula One: return to competitive level and add to his world championship titles tally within the next 3 years (the duration of his deal with the German manufacturer).

“We all want to win. The season will be long and hard, no doubt about that, but I love this fight - it is because of this fight that I came back to Formula 1,” added the 7-time world champion.

Team principal Ross Brawn revealed that his team will debut a brand new rear diffuser design on the W01 in Bahrain, along with several other aerodynamic features aimed at improving the car's performances. Following the Barcelona test 2 weeks ago, it emerged that the pecking order of the 2010 title contenders is Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes GP.