Mercedes? Brawn: ?P5 is not our ambition?

The folks at Mercedes, despite Nico Rosberg's historic win and a better points haul than last season, obviously aren't a bunch of happy campers as Formula 1 heads off to its summer break. Reliability problems -- pretty much with Michael Schumacher's car -- have plagued the team and left it in fifth place in the constructors standings. And that isn't good enough, team boss Ross Brawn says in a Q&A with the official Formula 1 site. Here's a chunk:

Q: Sauber are targeting P5 in the constructors? championship - the position Mercedes currently hold. How does that go down with you? What in your eyes could thwart Sauber?s ambitions? RB: I am sure they do focus on P5 - and I respect that. We haven?t got the car quite as we wanted right now, but we have a very good team - very good people - so I am optimistic that we are going to have a stronger second half to the season than the first half. Q: So you want to stay where you are in the table? RB: I want to do better. P5 is not our ambition and we will do anything possible to end better. There are still a lot of races to come with many more points to be won. Q: There?s no doubt Michael has had more than his fair share of bad luck so far this year - and it would probably be too philosophical to think that after seven titles he has perhaps used up all his luck - but doesn?t poor lucky usually strike under weak conditions? RB: Well, you could argue what luck is. It was very unlucky for Michael - the problems that he had - but these problems have had a cause. There has been a reason why they?ve occurred, which has nothing to do with Michael. It just occurred on his car and you categorically can?t see any reasons why they occurred on Michael?s car, but they have. So the fact is that something went wrong - and when something goes wrong it?s the responsibility of me and the team to not allow it to go wrong again. He had that many years perhaps benefiting from good fortune and this year he has some poor fortune, but I prefer not to believe in luck - not in motor racing.

Brawn also refuses to talk in depth about Schumacher's decision on staying or going. (There's a cute bit on speaking "tyre-ish," too.) But the interview really seems to reflect on where Mercedes is -- which feels to me like all of our reactions and thoughts on Mercedes. Where is this team? Why isn't it doing better? Are the reliability problems just bad luck or is there something else there? And if the team could figure that out, might it be competing for two podiums per race? What are you expecting from Mercedes for the rest of the season?

BUDDY ANTUNEZ DAVID BAILEY MIKE KIEDROWSKI