Main rival is not clear to Mercedes - Wolff

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Toto Wolff says Mercedes will not get caught up trying to work out whether Red Bull or Ferrari is the team's biggest rival at present.

Mercedes has won five of the first six races this season, with Red Bull beating Ferrari in the Spanish Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg collided. Red Bull should have won in Monaco but for a pit stop error which relegated Daniel Ricciardo to second, but Wolff does not want Mercedes to worry about which team offers the greater threat.

“In Formula 1 you’re only as good as your last race and this is why at the beginning it was Ferrari that was expected to be the enemy number one because they scored the better results," Wolff said. "Now Red Bull won a race in Barcelona and they were pretty competitive in Monaco and suddenly Red Bull is being seen as the main competitor.

"I think we just need to stay calm. Both teams have all the resources you need in order to be competitive and we are just trying to go and follow our path, developing at the speed which we have identified as necessary to win a championship and that is more important than always looking at the competition.”

With the Canadian Grand Prix kicking off a run of six races in eight weeks, Wolff says Mercedes needs to stay focused on extracting the best from itself before the summer break.

“You just need to continue to develop the car in the way we have always planned. We are pushing flat out and we continue to develop the current car. Then you have to look after yourself and every team member that travels needs to look at his energy levels.

"Then equally we have the challenge at the factory for next year’s car. So it is very busy, the amount of travelling is going to be substantial for the summer break but then we will really deserve to go on holiday!”

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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.