The vice president of Mercedes Motorsport, Norbert Haug, has admitted that the German manufacturer cannot guarantee its involvement in Formula 1 in the long term.

Mercedes are a major shareholder in and supplier of engines to the McLaren team, who have received more bad publicity recently following the controversial events of the Australian Grand Prix.

Norbert Haug told GP Week magazine: “If you’re asking me ‘are we here for the next ten years?’ then everybody who is honest, and I am honest, cannot give you an answer about how the world, the car industry, the economical surroundings will develop.”

“It is a difficult time for all of us, the whole industry, that’s for sure..It’s not easy for anybody but I hope it changes.”

Although the manufacturer has remained loyal to McLaren - even through the espionage row in 2007 - Haug admitted that Mercedes is disappointed by the recent ‘misleading the stewards’ scandal which has again tarnished McLaren’s image.

“Victories would be better than having discussion like these. But what I want to point out is that we have had some very positive influence. Monitoring what we get back worldwide we are the team with the most international televidion presence and so on,” he said.

“But we are clearly unhappy with the situation, as it is right now. Where we can help from a Mercedes side is to describe it in all openness. I think our team tries to be as open and accessible as possible.

“Yes, this (situation) is not a positive, but on the balance we have had a lot of positives for the money we are investing.”