• British Grand Prix

Mercedes won't suffer Barcelona repeat - Rosberg

Nico Rosberg: "Whatever we do it's not going to be any worse than Spain" © Sutton Images

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• British Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Nico Rosberg

• Teams:
• Mercedes

Nico Rosberg is confident Mercedes will not suffer a repeat of its problems at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend at Silverstone.

Mercedes took a one-two lock out in qualifying in Spain but then plummeted down the order in the race with high levels of tyre degradation. Since the Spanish Grand Prix, Rosberg has won the Monaco Grand Prix but Silverstone is the first high-speed track the teams have visited since Mercedes left Circuit de Catalunya.

"Whatever we do it's not going to be any worse than Spain!" Rosberg said on Thursday. "It's highly likely that we'll do better than Spain because that was a really poor weekend for us. Qualifying was fantastic [in Spain] so again I expect a very good qualifying here, but because high-speed corners are where you damage the tyres this is the ultimate test with high-speed corners again.

"If you're not good on your tyre management you are going to be nowhere in the race. But I expect it will be better than Spain and we've made some changes through the year, all the time trying to further improve it."

Since Monaco Mercedes has been embroiled in the Pirelli test controversy, which came to a head last week when the team appeared in front of the International Tribunal. Rosberg said he had not been distracted by the case but admitted the team's top level management have had a tough time focusing on the racing.

"The only effect it's had on me is that I'm answering your questions about it all the time," he said. "That's the only thing that has been different. I would prefer to be speaking about other things with you than about this, but it's not really a problem for me. For sure it's taken the attention away for other people in the team that have been needing to handle that situation and it would have been better for them to focus fully on the races. Like Ross was very involved with the whole tribunal case and it's good that's now behind us and Ross can now concentrate fully on our development programme."

The team will have to skip the Young Driver Test as part of its punishment for the Pirelli test and Rosberg said that while it was a "small penalty" it would be a setback.

"For sure it's going to hurt us a little bit and that's the small penalty that we've gotten. That's the way it is and we have to accept it and make the most of it anyway."

Asked if he was expecting a bigger penalty, he said: "I don't know what I was expecting because I didn't know all the details and what the problems were. It is what it is and we depend on a neutral group of lawyers to thoroughly investigate it and judge it to get the adequate decision."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.