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Schumacher plays down title chances
Source: Agencies |
February 10, 2012, Friday
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MICHAEL Schumacher was hoping the late arrival of his new Mercedes would pay off after doing nearly two race distances in last year's car on the second afternoon of Formula One testing in Spain on Wednesday.
Despite that, and despite setting a quickest lap that was meaningless on a day when rivals were trying out their new cars, the German still played down his title chances. The seven-time world champion pounded out 132 laps, with a best time of one minute 18.561 seconds, to gather tire data on the new Pirelli rubber.
Mercedes has decided not to run its 2012 car until the second pre-season test in Barcelona later this month to give it as much development time as possible.
"It (bringing the car out late) maybe is an important factor because we have worked longer on our car," the 43-year-old Schumacher told reporters.
"As I said before, I don't think we can realistically achieve a championship car from where we started last year. We have to build our way there. I'm confident we can do that, in future, but let's take it step by step," said the German, who has not been on the podium since he began his comeback in 2010. Schumacher said reliability was the main focus and Mercedes hoped to have learnt from the past. "Our program is done in a way that we believe in it," he added.
Despite that, and despite setting a quickest lap that was meaningless on a day when rivals were trying out their new cars, the German still played down his title chances. The seven-time world champion pounded out 132 laps, with a best time of one minute 18.561 seconds, to gather tire data on the new Pirelli rubber.
Mercedes has decided not to run its 2012 car until the second pre-season test in Barcelona later this month to give it as much development time as possible.
"It (bringing the car out late) maybe is an important factor because we have worked longer on our car," the 43-year-old Schumacher told reporters.
"As I said before, I don't think we can realistically achieve a championship car from where we started last year. We have to build our way there. I'm confident we can do that, in future, but let's take it step by step," said the German, who has not been on the podium since he began his comeback in 2010. Schumacher said reliability was the main focus and Mercedes hoped to have learnt from the past. "Our program is done in a way that we believe in it," he added.
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