'The Force India team has good prospects'

Norbert Haug may not be grabbing as much media attention as other F1 stars. But as boss of Mercedes-Benz motorsports, the 56-year-old has been  instrumental in the team’s success over the last 15 years. With their decision to supply engines to Force India and possibly Honda this year, Mercedes’ role in F1 has increased tremendously. In an exclusive interview, Haug tells DNA about the challenges ahead and why the German auto giants are committed to F1

How has Mercedes-Benz adapted to the sweeping regulation changes in Formula One? How challenging has it been especially, the development of KERS?
It was very challenging indeed. Never before in history of Formula One so many technical changes have taken place from one season to the next one. Mercedes-Benz has an enormous amount of experience in the field of Hybrid technologies, so our Formula One specialists were helped to get a flying start which boosted our KERS development in a very positive way.

With the current global financial crisis gripping Formula One, what do you think is the future of Formula One? Is Mercedes-Benz fully committed to Formula One?
We are committed. We need to further cut costs and Mercedes-Benz is promoting this direction for five years already. The rule changes during that period of time —from a V10 3-litre engine to a V8 2.4-litre and the introduction of KERS naturally have cost a considerable amount of money.

Having said that, Mercedes-Benz spent less money during our World Championship campaign last year than we did five years ago. The visibility and positive image Lewis Hamilton and the team created last year by winning the Formula One World Championship was worth every Euro we invested.

An advertising campaign generating a comparable worldwide media impact would have cost us at least ten times more. But still our target is to get rules that allow the teams to be able to run with half of last year’s budgets and to be paid a considerable part of this budget by the commercial rights holder.

This year Mercedes-Benz will be supplying drivetrain package and KERS to Force India. What were the considerations behind this move considering that other than McLaren you haven’t supplied engines to any other team?
The Force India Formula One Team in our view has good prospects. The team is a very determined group of people and Mercedes-Benz wanted to help these guys to move forward. India is a very important market for our brand and we know that the Formula One fans in this country would like to see Force India Formula One to up their game. Of course, we are no sponsors of the team but partners that get paid and we certainly hope that our support will help the team to become more and more
competitive.

Do you think Force India will be a force to reckon with this year, especially after the Mercedes-Benz deal?
They will do a better job than last year, I’m sure. But don’t expect miracles — it is a very competitive environment out there and to become a regular points scorer you normally need more than two seasons.

There were reports that Mercedes-Benz would be grooming its talented drivers in Formula One through Force India. Your comments.
Not now, but this could mutually be developed as an option for the future, but for now we prefer to make one step at the time.

What is your opinion about the Honda situation? Are you keen on supplying engines to Honda?
This is an option. The team could be a paying customer. Due to the rule changes we need to build less engines for our own team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and as a consequence we have got the capacities to build engines for our competitors. This helps them, Formula One in general and in addition we can generate some money for our own budget.