Mercedes Pushed too Hard, Says Haug

Mercedes-Benz motorsports boss Norbert Haug said on Friday that the engine suppliers have run into problems because they pushed too hard in an effort to overhaul World Champions Ferrari this year.

The Italian giants looked to be on the ropes at the end of last season when McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen finished just two points behind six-time World Champion Michael Schumacher. But they failed to capitalise on their competitiveness and have dropped away after their new MP4-19 machine was dogged by reliability problems in the opening races of the season.

"Almost everything went wrong so far and maybe the step (we made) was a little bit too big," admitted Haug. "Now we're working very concentrated on really improving our performance and reliability."

McLaren looked strong in early pre-season testing but then struggled as the season-opening Australian Grand Prix came closer and have dropped the ball in the opening three rounds. Raikkonen is yet to score while his teammate David Coulthard has picked up just four points to leave them 15 points behind joint-third teams Williams and BAR-Honda in fifth place.

In a major re-organisation after the Bahrain Grand Prix McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh was given the job of general manager for the entire McLaren-Mercedes operation underneath team principal Ron Dennis. Haug played down suggestions that the move was a reaction to the struggles and insisted it is part of a re-structuring that is aimed at bringing the two companies closer together.

"Martin Whitmarsh is responsible for both chassis and engine and all the organisation in practical terms and we want to work as one entity," said Haug. "I think that is a very good step in the right direction. Honestly, we didn't really achieve what we wanted to achieve in the first three races of the season - but we are working very hard to come back to where we used to be.

"Sometimes things like that happen. They should not, should not happen and I think all the team were very motivated, trying to make a big step in the right direction."