2010

Relishing the challenge

The season itself turns out to be difficult. The Mercedes W01 has been born from too many compromises to be a really strong contender. It is a transitional car from a transitional year and consequently turns out to be a blunt instrument on too many occasions for Michael and his young team-mate Nico Rosberg. In addition, the speed of change in Formula One, with new updates being introduced on virtually a weekly basis, does not exactly help Michael’s cause: three years’ lay-off is like an eternity in this fast-moving business. The cars and tyres have changed greatly, and because of the massive restrictions on testing, Michael is unable to try out all the new automatic features. It’s as if a tennis player were to return to top-flight competition after three years and find that the game itself has changed: the size of the court, the height of the net, the pressure of the balls and the tensioning of the rackets – and to cap it all, he’s not allowed to practise.

Nevertheless, Michael enjoys the challenge. He relishes the idea of being part of team building something worthwhile, and because it has become obvious during the winter tests that his own competitiveness as well as that of the car are not likely to be optimum in the first year, he accepts the setbacks as part of the (re)learning curve. During the 2009 season, he doesn’t make a single appearance on the podium, but he is gradually working towards it. By the end of the year, he will know for sure that adjustment to the new Formula One has taken longer than he expected, but at the same time, the process has been a success and that he can still mix it with the world’s elite.

So the schedule remains unchanged – three years to reclaim the title. “Of course I would have preferred it if the first year had gone better,” says Michael. “But we are going in the right direction, and I think that we can eventually win the world championship. That’s what we are aiming for. All the indications are that, in our second year together, we’ll be strong enough to secure podium finishes and even outright wins. I’m not sure that we are yet strong enough to take the world championship. That will be our target in Year Three.”