Ross Brawn says Mercedes' 2013 development plan will depend on season prospects

Ross Brawn has hinted that Mercedes will be open to sustaining development of their W04 for longer if they "get a sniff" of the World Championship over the second half of the season.

Brawn acknowledges that striking the right balance between 2013 and 2014 development is going to prove "the tricky thing" of the second half of the year but is confident Mercedes have upgrades in the pipeline which will give a further performance boost. "The team has great spirit at the moment," he added. "I know the things which are coming through on the technical front and our hit rate has been pretty good on new technical innovations this year. "Things we have brought to the track have generally worked. We're got some things coming up in the next few races which could give us extra impetus, that extra momentum, to take us through the second half of the year. "I don't think there's going to be huge innovations for the second half of the season [across the grid], so where we are is well-placed."