• Brazilian Grand Prix - FP2

Exhausts not costing Mercedes - Rosberg

ESPN Staff
November 23, 2012 « Button explains wing difference | Alonso struggling with Ferrari balance »
Mercedes is set to ditch its Coanda-effect exhaust for the whole Brazilian GP weekend © Sutton Images
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Nico Rosberg says reverting to the old exhaust specification is "not necessarily" costing Mercedes at this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix.

Mercedes did not run its Coanda-effect exhaust layout in order to analyse the 2013 tyres with a more consistent base during Friday practice at Interlagos. Norbert Haug revealed on Thursday that the approach was likely to continue for the rest of the weekend, and Rosberg said there's a lot of complex factors that mean it's not as simple a case as the car losing downforce.

"We're trying those just to learn now for next year; that's all that counts," Rosberg said. "Not necessarily [costing us] so much, it's a very complicated thing to do so maybe we haven't had as much of a gain as we expected from the exhausts, because it's just very complex. It's not just downforce, there are other factors."

Rosberg added that Friday had shown Mercedes to have encouraging pace on high fuel compared to the rest of the field.

"Relatively pace-wise it's looking OK. It's very difficult out there, really for everybody it's just so hot - the temperatures - and that makes grip very poor. High altitude and everything it's very poor grip so it's difficult to drive the cars, but then I think relatively speaking pace-wise we're OK which is nice to see that even in such hot temperatures it's going decent; especially on the long run I guess."

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