Mercedes will be in a position to win the Formula One world championship in 2014, according to company boss Dieter Zetsche.
Speaking at the Detroit motor show, Zetsche admitted that the team's results last year, where it finished fifth in the constructors' championship and scored one win with Nico Rosberg, were not good enough.
"Formula One is a very visible platform, and there's no doubt we spend a lot of marketing budget on competing as we consider it close to our core business," said Zetsche.
"But as its so visible people see pretty quickly if you succeed or not, and if the results are up to your expectations. For Mercedes those expectations must be that we are up there at every race competing for victory.
"Even though we had one win last year, you cannot say we were in a position to be considered winners everywhere. So that is why we have made changes - a new driver, a new chairman and more to come.
"What we saw was that the engine was the best, or up with the best, and drivers who were among the best. The real problem lay with the chassis and we are working on that.
"The coming season will probably not allow us to show the full effect of the changes, but in 2014 we will have a good shot at the championship, especially with the new engine rules. Optimising the chassis and engine for that opportunity is key."
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Hamilton's not Schumacher
Ferrari did do well from getting Shuey, but he took a whole team of the best engineers with him from benetton to ferrari who all worked around him to optimise the performance of the car and turn the team's fortunes around. As far as I'm aware that's not happening here, it's just Lewis going to Mercedes, and as much as I think he's a great driver this year proved that if the car and the team aren't up to it then even he can't overcome that.
The recent history of F1 shows that whenever there's rule changes it usually benefits whichever team employs Adrian Newey at the time.
All About 2014
This year will be all about 2014. Bedding Lewis into the team, letting them understand how he works and how he likes the car and any chassis development will have an eye towards application with the 2014 rules.
Same thing happend at Ferrari, they were nowhere, in came Michael, spent 18months or so completely reshaping the team and the car then BANG!! complete and utter dominance. Ross has seen it work before, he's betting it can work again.
Mercedes in F1
I rarely make bets - but 2013 is a year when I believe that Mercedes team will beat McLaren in the Championship.
Team Newey are hot favourites - but there will be surprises this year............