23/05/2012
NEWS STORY
While Mercedes CEO Nick Fry suggests that Paul di Resta would make a perfect replacement for Michael Schumacher, team boss, and F1 veteran, Ross Brawn believes the German is having a good season.
On paper, the seven-time champ has just two points, leaving him seventeenth in the standings, level with (constantly) under-fire Felipe Massa, and way behind Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg who scored his maiden victory in China.
However, while Fry might think it is time for Schumacher to hang up his helmet, Brawn, who previously worked with the German at Benetton and then Ferrari, points to technical issues which have somewhat derailed his season thus far.
"I think he has actually been very good this year," Brawn told reporters. "We have not achieved the results we wanted to but if you look under the surface, he has been pretty good this year.
"We need a few more things to fall in place, and then I think we can still have a lot of fun with Michael," he continued. "I think rather like the fact that there has been a lot of attention on his incident in Spain. There will be massive attention if he does succeed and does well, which I am looking forward to."
Referring to the incident in Spain, a collision with Bruno Senna which has earned the German a five-place grid penalty here this weekend, Brawn suggests it was "one of those things where you are walking down the street, someone is coming towards you and you both go the same way at the same time so you bump into each other.
"It was no more than that," he adds. "It was a bit unfortunate but we will do our best to overcome it."
The Englishman, who didn't attend the Spanish race due to illness - now known to be an irregular heartbeat - revealed that subsequent tests indicate that there are no lasting problems.