The much-anticipated 2010 Formula One Season gets underway in Bahrain this week and marks the return of a Mercedes-Benz works team to the sport for the first time in 55 years.

The Mercedes GP Petronas F1 team head into the season with the prestige of being the current Constructors' World Champions, led by Team Principal Ross Brawn with one of the most exciting driver line-ups on the grid. Seven times World Champion Michael Schumacher will make his returns to the sport after a three year retirement to partner the talented up and coming young Nico Rosberg.

Everyone in the team is proud to be representing the rich motorsport pedigree of Mercedes-Benz and knowing that they head into the new season as the reigning World Champions gives the team confidence and a fierce pride to defend their position, however it must be remembered that this is a new season and a new challenge and team boss Ross Brawn is well aware that they are not where they would have liked to be heading into the opening round of the season....

“We had a strong pre-season testing programme with the MGP W01 but we are not quite reached the level of preparation that we would have liked prior to Bahrain. The car shows promise and we have a strong development programme planned for the season but there is a lot of hard work ahead to ensure that we will be in the fight for the title,” he explained.

However, he is very pleased with how the team’s new drivers, Michael and Nico, have settled into the team and developed a close working relationship.

“They have really pushed the development of the car throughout testing and they will push each other to achieve better results on the race track,” he said.

This season should be a fantastic one for the fans with so many talented drivers competing and what is likely to be a very close fight for the title between the top teams and that can only be good for the sport.