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F1: Brawn Pleased With Mercedes W04 Progress
Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn believes the team had a good week in Barcelona...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted February 22, 2013   Barcelona (ESP)
Team boss Ross Brawn says both Mercedes drivers are providing excellent feedback on the new car. (Photo: Getty Images)
Ross Brawn says he’s happy with the progress made by Mercedes with the W04 in Barcelona this week.

Although, as ever, times were of questionable value, Nico Rosberg was fastest on the first day and Lewis Hamilton paced the final day on Friday. Despite some more reliability issues, Brawn is upbeat.

“Overall, we’ve had a good week in Barcelona and achieved the program that we set ourselves for this second test,” he said. “The rain today was a little unfortunate; however, we made the best of the conditions and were still able to take some useful data out of the day. Nico and Lewis are becoming more familiar with the car and its behavior as each day progresses, and Lewis is settling into the team very well.

“Both drivers are providing excellent feedback which is pushing the development of the car both here and at the factory, and it is very rewarding to see their enthusiasm and commitment. We now have just four days of testing left until the first race in Australia, and a lot of work will be done before we return to Barcelona next week.”

Hamilton, meanwhile, was equally bullish although again he stressed the need to find downforce: “Like I said in Jerez, I can feel that we have a good foundation with this car, but there is still a lot to learn and we know that the name of the game is to improve our downforce. From a personal point of view, my relationship with the team is growing all the time and it’s going really well.

“I’m happy working with the guys; we are working in the right direction together and I’m pushing to extract the most from the team, just like they are with me.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
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