Brawn: Mercedes must calmly prepare for the 2014 season

The Mercedes team has been the strongest in qualifying this year, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg securing eight pole positions in eleven events – Sebastian Vettel claiming the other three pole positions. Lewis Hamilton is currently on a streak of 4 consecutive pole positions, but converting these good qualifying results into race victories is not always straightforward.

Proof of this is that the Silver Arrows have only won three times since the beginning of the year, and even though the Mercedes F1 W04 has improved and Lewis Hamilton is still in the running for the title—he is 3rd in the drivers’ championship—and Mercedes is currently in 2nd place in the constructors’ championship, the German team does not want to focus solely on 2013.

Ross Brawn, the team manager, wants to see his team achieve good results by the end of the year but not at the expense of preparing for the 2014 season, which will bring its share of innovations, starting with a new power unit based on a 1.6L V6 Turbo engine.

« We are not thinking about winning a championship. Of course, I don’t want it to sound like we don’t want to win the championship, we do want that of course, but we don’t want to compromise our 2014 program, » Brawn told journalists at Spa, as quoted by Sky Sports F1.

Our 2014 program is well-defined. It is on track. It is progressing well. There are still several major challenges, but we are clearly not going to compromise on that. There are always some people you can move around slightly, and that is what we are working on. We want to try to win as many races as possible [this year] but we do not want to compromise our 2014 program.

Brawn estimates that fighting at the front this year forces the Mercedes team to continue developing this year’s car while still focusing the majority of the team’s resources on the 2014 car – like its rivals.

The reality is that being in a position where you can abandon the season is generally because you don’t have a very good car. Fortunately, we have a good car this year, and we want to keep moving forward. If you are in a good position, you don’t have this opportunity; you must constantly manage your resources. Red Bull has to manage its resources between this year and next year, Ferrari as well, all these teams have to do it. So if it’s a measure to know where you are when you have to manage your resources between 2013 and 2014, then that means you are in a good position, added Brawn.