DTM: Mercedes defend new car

[Plex]

Mercedes have defended their brand new C-Class after the 2007 car was defeated by its older versions last weekend.

Gary Paffett and Paul di Resta scored a Mercedes 1-2 at Oschersleben on Sunday, but they were driving 2006 and 2005 cars respectively.

However, Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug believes that the results for the new car have not given a fair reflection of its pace so far this season.

"It's not right to say that the new car is not good enough," Haug told autosport.com. "It just has not scored the points that it should have scored."

Bruno Spengler and Mika Hakkinen have both taken a pole position so far this season in the new car, but so far the HWA team's drivers have been hindered in some way during the races.

Spengler has suffered power steering problems in both races, while last weekend reigning champion Bernd Schneider stalled at the start, and Jamie Green was given a drive-through penalty for a collision with Vanina Ickx.

"Jamie could have finished on the podium, and Bernd came from 20th to sixth," Haug added. "We could have had all of the cars in the top five."

Green set the fastest lap of the race in Oschersleben, and he feels that the new car is fast enough to win races.

"Our pace is not as bad as the results show," he told autosport.com. "But I think that the drivers in the '07 cars have all had problems in the races so far.

"I kind of expected the old cars to do well though. The 2005 and 2006 cars have both won the championship, so we know what they are capable of."

Hakkinen was unable to match the pace of Paffett and di Resta during the race on Sunday, and the Finn admitted that the whole team has some work to do still.

"We have some work to do to improve the car," he said. "But we would do this even if we were winning, so it is not a reaction to our results.

"The car has great potential, and we just have to get the best out of it at the right time."

Autosport