UNITED KINGDOM: MOTOR RACING - Mercedes GP team switches chassis for Schumacher in Spain as they search for more speed.

Record ID: 735264

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: MOTOR RACING - Mercedes GP team switches chassis for Schumacher in Spain as they search for more speed.
  • Date: 27th April 2010
  • Summary: LIFEBOAT CREW MEMBER OPERATING ENGINES (SOUNDBITE) (English) MERCEDES GP TEAM PRINCIPAL ROSS BRAWN, EXPLAINING HOW THE TEAM CAN HELP SCHUMACHER BECOME MORE COMPETITIVE, SAYS "Well first of all he has got the talent and it's harnessing that talent and shaping that talent into using the tyres properly, because those tyres we have now are tyres that have evolved in the period that he wasn't racing. He's got to get used to the tyres, he's got to work out how to use those tyres and he himself has a very self-analytical approach, a self-critical approach, looking at all the data, looking at how he is driving the car, it's all so fascinating for someone who has been so successful but he is also so critical, looking at every detail to see how he can improve things. So since China he and his engineer have been poring over all the data to work out how they can improve." LIFEBOAT INSIGNIA ON SIDE OF LIFEBOAT (SOUNDBITE) (English) MERCEDES GP TEAM PRINCIPAL ROSS BRAWN, TALKING ABOUT MICHAEL SCHUMACHER'S DRIVE TO RETURN TO THE PERFORMANCE LEVEL HE HAD BEFORE RETIREMENT SAYS "I don't know, I think Michael's aspirations would be to get back absolutely to where he was before. But it was at such a high level that even somewhat lower down would be fantastic. So, but he is incredibly determined and so I think those kind of people, Michael and Lance Armstrong, are just very special I think we can't related to their commitment, that determination, it's at a different level." QUESTION: CAN YOU SEE HIM WINNING RACES SOON OR BY THE END OF THE SEASON? (SOUNDBITE) (English) MERCEDES GP TEAM PRINCIPAL ROSS BRAWN SAYS: "We have to provide him with the car, I mean that's the key. I think if we can provide the car, if we can provide the means, yes, I think he will." RNLI LIFEBOAT MANOEUVRING OFF BOAT STATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) MERCEDES GP TEAM PRINCIPAL ROSS BRAWN, TALKING ABOUT PERFORMANCE OF CURRENT CHAMPIONSHIP LEADER JENSON BUTTON WHO LEFT BRAWN'S TEAM AT END OF 2009, SAYS: "He's a very intelligent driver and he's quick but he's also driven some very intelligent races and we've had lots of mixed conditions and he has made the right decisions and not made mistakes. And that is the Jenson I refer to sometimes as the one we had the first half of last year, the one we had the second half of last year wasn't the Jenson we all know can perform and he is performing extremely well. And considering he is new to the team and getting used to the team it's very impressive." VIEW OF COMMUTERS WALKING ACROSS BRIDGE ACROSS THAMES ON THEIR WAY TO WORK, TILT DOWN TO SHOW LNLI LIFEBOAT AT STATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) MERCEDES GP TEAM PRINCIPAL ROSS BRAWN, CONFIRMING THAT HE STILL ENJOYS WORKING IN THE COMPETITIVE WORLD OF FORMULA ONE, SAYS: "Oh yes, it goes in these different phases and at the moment we are in the phase of building Mercedes GP, two or three years ago I joined Honda which became Brawn and now it has become Mercedes and Michael coming back and the challenges that is bringing, a new driver in the team Nico, there are always new challenges so I enjoy it very much." ROSS BRAWN POSING IN FRONT OF LIFEBOATS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVADHBBN050OGZUJLKVGPV7GG4IF
  • Story Text: Mercedes will switch Michael Schumacher's car for next week's Spanish Grand Prix to try and get the seven times Formula One champion back up to speed, team principal Ross Brawn said on Monday (April 26).
    "It's not a new chassis per se, it's a chassis we used in testing," Brawn said.
    "The one he had got damaged in the first few races so we repaired it as best we could at the races but now we are back at base we are going to reintroduce the test chassis and he will be using that in Barcelona."
    The Mercedes GP principal was at a fund-raising event for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) at a lifeboat station on the banks of the River Thames. Brawn is challenging teams from businesses to use their entrepreneurial skills to raise 350,000 pounds sterling (541,000 U.S. dollars) to buy a new inshore lifeboat for London's river.
    He added that the wheelbase would also be changed to improve weight distribution, and Mercedes are also planning a major aerodynamic revamp for the first race of the European season after four in the Middle and Far East.
    Schumacher, a winner at Benetton and Ferrari with Brawn as technical director, is making his Formula One comeback at the age of 41 and after retiring at the end of 2006 with a record 91 race wins.
    The German has been outqualified and beaten in all four races to date by team mate and compatriot Nico Rosberg, with concern mounting that Schumacher is finding it hard to replicate his form of old.
    Schumacher finished 10th in the latest race in China while Rosberg was third after leading early on.
    Brawn described how Schumacher was working to understand where he was losing time.
    "He himself has a very self-analytical approach, a self-critical approach, looking at all the data, looking at how he is driving the car, it's all so fascinating for someone who has been so successful but he is also so critical, looking at every detail to see how he can improve things. So since China he and his engineer have been poring over all the data to work out how they can improve," Brawn said.
    The team principal also spoke of the task Schumacher has set himself, rather like the other come-back sportsman Lance Armstrong, to regain his form pre-retirement.
    "I think Michael's aspirations would be to get back absolutely to where he was before. But it was at such a high level that even somewhat lower down would be fantastic. So, but he is incredibly determined and so I think those kind of people, Michael and Lance Armstrong, are just very special I think we can't related to their commitment, that determination, it's at a different level."
    Brawn also spoke about the form of Jenson Button, the driver who won the world championship for his Brawn GP team and then left to join McLaren. Button currently leads the world championship after taking two wins this season.
    "He's a very intelligent driver and he's quick but he's also driven some very intelligent races and we've had lots of mixed conditions and he has made the right decisions and not made mistakes. And that is the Jenson I refer to sometimes as the one we had the first half of last year, the one we had the second half of last year wasn't the Jenson we all know can perform and he is performing extremely well. And considering he is new to the team and getting used to the team it's very impressive."
    Ross Brawn explained that he owned a house close to a lifeboat station in Cornwall in south-west England, and that he thought the charity was a fantastic cause to support.
    The RNLI uses donated money from residents of the United Kingdom to provide off-shore and inshore lifeboats to rescue sailors, swimmers and anyone else in danger of drowning. Its Tower Bridge station in central London is one of the busiest with calls a number of times a day, often to save people who have jumped off bridges into the cold and turbulent Thames.
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