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Wolff: Mercedes not favourite for Singapore

Toto Wolff says Mercedes should not count itself as the favourite to win the Singapore Grand Prix after last year's struggles.

Mercedes was uncompetitive at the Marina Bay Street Circuit last season as Sebastian Vettel took victory ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in a close fight between Ferrari and Red Bull. While Mercedes has been working hard on understanding its form from a year ago, Wolff says the circuit characteristics still play to the strengths of its rivals.

"After a strong showing in Italy, we go to Singapore with a big challenge ahead of us," Wolff said. "No team has ever scored a 1-2 finish there - and with good reason. As we have seen before, it's a race where a single problem can cascade into many more as the weekend progresses.

"We have to optimise everything to get a solid result. We didn't manage it last year and, although we believe we now understand why, only performance on the racetrack can prove our conclusions right. We are curious and excited to see how it goes.

"Ferrari were mighty around this circuit last year and it will suit the high downforce design philosophy followed by Red Bull, so we must not make the mistake of thinking we are favourites this weekend."

With just two points separating Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, Wolff acknowledges the race will be a crucial one for his drivers regardless of how competitive the car is.

"It's an exciting time for the sport and the future is looking bright. For us, we now have to get the ball over the line in both Championships while remaining conscious that next year is a very different challenge.

"For the drivers, I think their battle will go to the end and our challenge is to ensure they both have the equal opportunity to fight in terms of equipment and operations. It's going to be great to watch."

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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.