Brawn happy with Mercedes development

Over the next few days the spotlight will move on to the drivers on the Formula One grid, so today we are going to concentrate on the team principals.

Following on from Lotus team principal Eric Boullier's comments about the new tyres, and Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali talking about how Ferrari will fair during the opening weekend of the season our last point of call for today is Mercedes and team boss Ross Brawn.

Mercedes missed out on the first test in Jerez, preferring to test their old car during the opening days of the winter season to give the guys back in the factory more time to finish their new 2012 Mercedes.

McLaren made the same decision last year and ultimately paid the price by having to play catch-up throughout the winter testing season and arrived in Australia in almost a blind state of panic.

That hasn't been the case for Mercedes however and both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher have both liked the feel of their new car.

They are the first to admit that it isn't the quickest on the grid, but neither is it the slowest and it would appear that they have indeed closed the gap between themselves and Ferrari, something which could bring them regular podium positions in 2012, although a race win is seen by Brawn as being a bit over optimistic.

'I think that [race wins] is a bit too optimistic, I believe we have moved quite a long way in 12 months and we are much stronger team than we were 12 months ago.' Brawn told Autosport Magazine.

'We won't know until the first four races really where everybody sits. Melbourne can be a bit unusual, especially now it is an evening race tyre pressures and temperatures can be a little bit of an issue.'

'We certainly have a much better platform, the things that we have been building over the last 12 to 18 months are starting to come to fruition.

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