After finishing above themselves at Silverstone, it was back to where they belong for Mercedes GP. There were no hints of a podium-finish this time around as they finished 8^th and 9^th. It was not what the hordes of Mercedes-dressed fans who packed into Hockenheim wanted to see.

But the truth is it was just about the maximum they could have achieved. Ferrari and Red Bull were in a different series, and even when McLaren were struggling they still had too much for their fellow Mercedes-Benz engine-using team.

That leaves them battling with Renault for the minor points and, unfortunately, while Vitaly Petrov is easy enough to beat, Robert Kubica seems much more comfortable with getting the best out of a poor car than Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.

The testing ban that Schumacher has complained about isn’t helping the seven-time World Champion get to grips with new updates well enough, and Rosberg is supremely talented, but not as much as Kubica.

The good news for Mercedes is they only lost one point to Renault in the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship. They are left 36 points ahead which – providing they keep getting two drivers in the points – should be insurmountable.

With this their only aim for the rest of the season it leaves them free to concentrate on next year. If they are serious about challenging for titles next season it has to be done.

Sure, more criticism will come their way for failing to pick up a victory this year, but it will be much more beneficial in the long run.

Ferrari did it last in 2009, losing any chance of challenging for victories, but turned up in Bahrain in March with the best car and achieved a one-two.

Some may argue Rosberg still has an outside chance of winning the Drivers’ Championship – 63 points isn’t such a big gap anymore – but it isn’t going to happen. It is a waste of resources trying to close the gap on the far-superior cars ahead of them.

I’m sure every one of the Mercedes fans in attendance on Sunday would prefer they turned up at the Nurburgring next year with a championship-contending car than they managed to finish on the same lap as the race-winners in the last few rounds of this campaign.

Ross Brawn has suffered like this before with his first year at Honda, but he managed to turn it around into a title-winning team. If anyone can transform Mercedes into a genuine-force next year, it is the 55-year-old from Manchester.

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