The Mercedes team have downplayed their title hopes even further, with rotund Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug admitting that the German team will struggle to even get on to the podium at the start of the new season.
Haug's comments follow an earlier admission from the team's 2010 lead driver Michael Schumacher that he didn't feel that wins would be possible from the start with the troublesome W01 car.
The team has struggled to match the pace of their nearest rivals in pre-season testing, and although they are planning to bring a number of technical upgrades to the first race in Bahrain, incluing their definitive 2010 diffuser package, Haug still does not see them as being podium contenders.
"In my opinion, we will not challenge for the podium in the first few races, but we will definitely show up afterwards," Haug explained to the German media over the weekend.
The Mercedes team may struggle to fight for overall supremacy, but the intra-team spat between Rosberg and Schumacher continues to simmer. Recently, Willi Weber, Schumacher's long standing manager, said that Schumie "must" beat Rosberg in 2010.
"The first thing you need to do as a racing driver is to get a grip on your teammate. For Michael in the first two or three races this could be difficult," Weber explained.
"But once everything is back to his liking, I really cannot see why Michael cannot beat him. Can, must."
Meanwhile, Rosberg told the Focus news magazine that he wasn't expecting the two sides of the garage to share every piece of data that they had throughout the year.
"What is important for the whole team will be disclosed," Rosberg explained, "But when it comes to specific needs, the small details, there are some things you can keep for yourself."
Rosberg's engineering chief for 2010 will be loudmouth tool Jock Clear, who famously got a bit overexcited on the pit radio after Rubens Barrichello's pole position in Brazil last year. Schumacher, meanwhile, will be looked after by Andrew Shovlin, former engineer of Jenson Button.
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