Mercedes shoulders its share of the blame

The Finn, who was aiming for a world title hat-trick, led the opening two races of the season in Australia and Brazil, but dropped out with engine problems. He recovered to lead the points prior to the US Grand Prix, but blew an engine in Indianapolis and headed to last weekend's Japanese race eight points behind Michael Schumacher.

"Our mistakes early in the season contributed to our failure," said Haug in Autosport's sister publication Motoring News this week. "It's a shame Mika dropped out in Australia and Brazil, when he was leading. He could have won both races, so we should take some criticism for his defeat."

But with Mercedes quitting Champ Cars to concentrate on its F1 programme, Haug is confident that it will bounce back.

"As a team we have done the best job in the last few years, but we can still raise our game," he said.

Mercedes' F1 V10s are designed and built by Northamptonshire-based Ilmor Engineering, whose boss Mario Illien said: "We have to improve our engine quality at the start of the year."