Wolff sees 'serious' threat from McLaren and Renault

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes that McLaren and Renault could pose a serious threat to the four-time world championship squad in 2018.

That's in addition to the team's usual rivals, Ferrari and Red Bull.

"This is the pinnacle of motor racing you need to respect every team and the top drivers," Wolff told Motorsport.com.

"We are taking Ferrari, we are taking Red Bull, we are taking McLaren, we are taking Renault seriously.

"These guys can fight for a championship," he insisted. "And some others might be surprising us."

Wolff said that while he expected competition from all of these teams, he still felt Mercedes would be able to rise to the challenge.

""I want to remain humble," he said. "[But] if we are able to align the dots like we have done in the last year, then we will be winning races. And then we will be fighting for championships.

"If we don't, then we haven't been good enough," he said succinctly.

Wolff confident Mercedes has 'strength in depth'

Ferrari's flying start to the 2017 season had been a sharp reminder to Wolff never to take anything for granted in F1.

The Scuderia won the Australian Grand Prix last year. And Sebastian Vettel was ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers standings after Monaco.

"How the [SF70H] performed on track was exceptional," recalled Wolff. "The step they made over the winter was probably the biggest step of all the teams.

"Ferrari could have won more races," Wolff conceded. "We're taking them very seriously as a real contender [this year] - like we do with the other teams.

Mercedes had to work hard on improving their own car and overcoming its "diva" characteristics. But they pulled if off, while Ferrari stumbled with reliability issues.

"I am happy that we kept it together," Wolff acknowledged. "We have a record of 11 race victories versus the five of Ferrari. And the stopwatch never lies."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.