Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Wolff calls on Mercedes to raise game

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Toto Wolff says Mercedes needs to raise its game in China having been beaten by Ferrari in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Sebastian Vettel secured a surprise victory for Ferrari at Sepang as he outpaced Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to win by over eight seconds. Wolff was gracious in defeat and says Mercedes is expecting the Ferrari challenge to be a sustained one, calling on his team to perform better in Shanghai this weekend.

"We left Malaysia with plenty to think about," Wolff said. "It may have been a good result for the sport - but for us, it was a wake-up call. This is something you cannot afford to happen often and, although we had two cars on the podium, we have been looking very carefully at every area where we could have performed better.

"Our opposition has raised its game and we must now raise ours even further; as we have said since Melbourne, we expect a season-long battle for both World Championships and we must maximise every opportunity.

"China is the next chance to do that - a circuit which has been a good hunting ground for the team. Lewis has a great record here and for Nico, it's where he made his first step into the winners circle. We have the weapons at our disposal - and we need to make the most of them this weekend."

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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.