Singapore GP: Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher says new Mercedes upgrade a boost

But the seven-time world champion expects it to take time for Mercedes to exploit the full potential of the package, which were tried out in last week's young driver test at Magny-Cours.

The new parts tried included a new Coanda-effect exhaust and a new double DRS, with test driver Sam Bird offering positive feedback on the progress made.

"We have already seen some advantage, otherwise we wouldn't fit it, but with that advantage you might see some experience being taken to learn to maximise this type of development," said Schumacher when asked by AUTOSPORT about his expectations for the upgrade this weekend.

"There is a lot of potential that we can bring in but already we start with an upside."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg urged caution over the upgrades, echoing his team-mate's belief that it would take time to get the best out of the new parts.

"Excited? We need to be careful with that word," said Rosberg when asked if he was excited about the prospects for the car upgrades.

"They are good changes and there are big changes to the car, but it's a process. We need to see how we get on with it and how beneficial it is, especially on this track.

"It's not something that you just put on the car and it works straight away. There's some tweaking that needs to be done because it's quite a complicated system."

Rosberg added that he believes that work done on the upgraded machine will pay dividends for 2013.

But he does expect that it will allow the team to get closer to the front in the short-term as well.

"We are pushing to improve the car and to get closer to the people who are winning the races," he said. "How it's going to work, and if it's going to work at all, we need to see.

"We are taking some drastic measures to try and modify the car. These things will help for next year too. It's important that we take a big step in performance next year."

Schumacher believes that Mercedes will now reap the dividends of a lengthy period of not upgrading its car while it worked on its latest package.

A Mercedes has not finished in the top five of a grand prix since his podium in the European Grand Prix in June, a spell of five races.

"We have not stopped developing the car and there is a feeling of optimism of making further steps towards the end of the season," said Schumacher.

"What you now see coming obviously had quite a bit of lead time since we started this programme. We had to suffer not to have upgrades compared to other teams but now we have come with our stuff and there are further improvements to come."

For a full explanation of how Mercedes's new Coanda-effect exhaust read Craig Scarborough's Tech Notebook.