Rosberg insists Mercedes is still pushing despite recent run of form

In his latest video blog, the German admitted that the W03 is struggling to match its rivals for race pace, but he says the team has not given up and is pushing developments which can also be used on its successor.

"We're focussing on next year all the time," he said. "We're still motivated to try and get some top results this year - we need to make a good end to the season.

"But at the same time we're pushing new developments through all the time on the car at the moment.

"And they are all going to help us next year because the rules are staying the same, so anything good for this year is going to be good for next year also. It's a bit of both."

Rosberg, who will be joined by Lewis Hamilton in 2013, replacing the retiring Michael Schumacher, added that it was important for Mercedes to take another step forward next year after scoring its first win in China back in April.

"Definitely we are starting to look towards next year because that is a very important year for us," he said, "because we need to make another step just as we have done this year with winning a race for the first time."