Ross Brawn admits Mercedes 'dropped the ball' and needs to deliver

With Nico Rosberg still in contention for the world championship, thanks to being the joint highest-scoring driver for the past five races, Brawn is eager for the team to begin delivering its maximum in a bid to close the gap to the leaders.

"I would assess our season so far as having a lot more promise and potential than the previous two years, but we haven't quite fulfilled that potential yet," said Brawn in a video preview broadcast by Mercedes ahead of the European Grand Prix.

"We still have a lot of races left, but I am pleased with the performance of the car, because we have won a race, were second in Monaco, and the car is nearly always in the top four or six cars in qualifying. So I think the car is much more competitive this year.

"But we haven't quite put the whole programme together. We have dropped the ball in a couple of races, not made the most of it, and I intend for the rest of the season to make sure that we as a team fulfil our potential because I think the potential this year is much better than previous years."

Rosberg is just 21 points adrift of championship leader Lewis Hamilton and, based on his consistent points-scoring and the pace the W03 has shown, Brawn believes a full-on championship tilt remains on the cards.

"Nico is driving very well, the car is extremely competitive and Nico is one race win away from leading the world championship. We just have to fight with everything we have to achieve the best results we can, and see what evolves, but there is no reason why not."

Brawn also revealed that Mercedes has modified the design of its hydraulic couplings following the failure that caused Michael Schumacher's DRS to jam open in Montreal

"We've changed the design to make sure that there is less likelihood of it happening [again]," he said. "It was a very well proven part, [so it was] very frustrating something like that would cause a problem."