Toto Wolff admits Mercedes is in "no-man's land" with its race pace and is unlikely to be able to challenge Red Bull and Ferrari in the Singapore Grand Prix.
Mercedes struggled for pace on Saturday, with Lewis Hamilton qualifying in fifth place but a massive 1.5 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel. Nico Rosberg was sixth quickest as Mercedes was unable to challenge Ferrari and Red Bull ahead, and Wolff is not expecting the picture to look any better in the race.
“You can’t expect any miracles and staying realistic is very important,” Wolff said. “As it looks now and if you look at the long runs we are in a bit of no-man’s land. Red Bull have been the quickest followed by Ferrari and ourselves and then there is a bit of a gap to Williams.
"I don’t expect us to perform much better unless we have some incidents or some very good driving from Lewis and Nico.
“You never know, but Singapore is a track where it is difficult to overtake and you have to look after the brakes. The pace is the pace and our pace [in qualifying] was fifth and sixth and it’s no different in the long runs.”
And Wolff denies the parameters relating to tyre pressures and temperatures which are being more strictly enforced by Pirelli and the FIA are the cause of Mercedes' struggles.
“None of the pressure levels set by Pirelli had any influence on our set-up and we were well within the limits. So that wasn’t the [reason], I think it’s a combination of the mechanical grip we were able to extract from the tyre.
"The car hasn’t changed, the car is still a very good car aerodynamically and the engine still hasn’t changed so there’s no explanation in the drop off of performance of the car. We just have been unable to put the car in the sweet-spot of the tyre. Ride height, camber, toe, pressures, the temperature of the bulk, the temperature of the surface, the mechanical balance - there is so much influence.”
REPORT: Vettel storms to Singapore pole as Mercedes dominance ends
AS IT HAPPENED: Singapore Grand Prix qualifying
Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore
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