Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg has said that the team will "certainly be at the top" as pre-season testing continues next week, despite a disappointing debut for the new Mercedes W01 car at the Valencia test earlier this week.
The Mercedes team left the three-day Valencia test with more than a few niggles in the new car to work out, after seeing both Rosberg and Michael Schumacher outpaced by their potential title rivals Ferrari throughout the test. Schumacher said after the test that the W01 would be unlikely to be a race winning package at the start of the season.
Team principal Ross Brawn admitted after the test that there were some issues with the new car, believed to be balance and handling problems, that the team will hope to rectify by the time the second test of the winter gets underway on Wednesday in Jerez.
But Rosberg, who posted only the 9th fastest overall time at the Valencia test, doesn't see any real need for concern, saying that Mercedes will improve their pace throughout testing.
"At the Jerez tests the veil will continue to be lifted and a more detailed picture will emerge, we will certainly be at the top," Rosberg poetically explained to Bild.
In a separate interview, Norbert Haug, the boss of Mercedes motorsport, told Auto Motor und Sport that although Ferrari dominated the opening test of the pre-season, they may not stay there throughout the buildup to the start of the 2010 season.
"At the first test, Ferrari did the best job of those teams in attendance," Haug controversially stated, "At the next test, and later at the first race, it may be a quite different story."
Bild also suggested that Mercedes had been deliberately sandbagging at the Valencia test, with a very heavy fuel load. Though how much of a pinch of salt needs to be taken with a German newspaper's thoughts on a German team's performance is entirely left up to the reader.
The four day test at Jerez will see another championship contender, Red Bull Racing, enter the fray for the first time. Though all the teams may find the test a rather frustrating time, with early weather forecasts predicting rain disruptions throughout the four days.
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