Mercedes has been focusing on improving the consistency its car's performance ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix after an improved package yielded its best result of the season in China.
The team was buoyed by a double points finish two weeks ago after a disappointing opening two rounds where the car failed to live up to the promise it showed in pre-season testing. Nico Rosberg led the Chinese Grand Prix midway through and may have finished higher than fifth had it not been for an unusually high rate of fuel consumption.
Team principal Ross Brawn said the car was now closer to its expectations and the task was to unlock more of its potential while continuing to perform week-in-week-out.
"The team and drivers have worked extremely hard in the short break before the European season begins to ensure that we continue to move forward," he said. "We have a fundamentally good car and we need to achieve its full potential in the races to come. The Chinese Grand Prix reminded everyone at the team what it is like to fight for a race. We didn't succeed on that occasion but it's a feeling that we would like to experience more often. When the car is working properly, we can be more competitive and the solutions we are bringing to Turkey will help us achieve this level more consistently. However, we also know that we need to push for more performance if we want to fight regularly at the front. The first three races have been a challenge but we have pulled together and will continue working hard to make progress."
Rosberg is hoping to be as competitive in Turkey as he was in China.
"We had a more difficult start to 2011 than we had expected, and the first three races felt a little like a rollercoaster of emotions," he said. "We were all disappointed in Melbourne and Malaysia but, after leading the race in Shanghai, we have confirmed the potential of our car. The team did a very good job to take a step forward and we learned a lot from the weekend. Hopefully we can now make a further step for Turkey and produce another positive performance."
Michael Schumacher is confident the team's hard work since China will yield a better result for him, after finishing a season-best eighth in Shanghai.
"I know that the team have been working very hard to continue the progress that we made during the last race weekend in China and, with the help of some developments planned for Istanbul, I am confident that we can enjoy an equally positive weekend."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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