Humility key despite five straight 1-2s – Mercedes

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has insisted that his team must “keep both feet on the ground” in spite of its imperious start to the 2019 Formula 1 season.

Mercedes, unbeaten in both championships in the hybrid era, has taken a 1-2 finish in each of the opening five rounds of the campaign.

It has dominated four of those five events and profited from Ferrari’s reliability issues in Bahrain to lock out the top spots on a weekend in which it was not fastest.

But Wolff has insisted that Mercedes must not get ahead of itself, citing the team’s recent struggles in Monaco, where it was only third-best in 2017 and 2018.

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“I think you need to stay humble and keep both feet on the ground,” Wolff emphasised.

“We've had five fantastic performances now and five 1-2s but we don't take it for granted. It's not just saying it, it's really the mindset that we have.

“The next two weeks are going to be a tremendous challenge for us. We've not had the performance in Monaco in the last years.

“Remember how strong [Daniel] Ricciardo was last year in the Red Bull. They were in a league of their own. We need to take one step at a time.

“The next race weekend looks challenging on paper. That is massively exciting for us to go there.

“Everybody's working flat out to try to understand the car for Monaco and really be strong there. So let's look at the next race, which is the sixth, and try to do well there.”

Wolff added that Ferrari and Red Bull remain a threat in this year’s Constructors’ Championship, even though his team has more points than the combined totals of its rivals.

“Both teams have the right resources and have tools that could easily make them rebound,” he said.

“We've seen a weekend in Barcelona now that was probably one of the strongest that we've had in seven years. But we are swinging a little bit with the news.

“If we have a strong weekend from Ferrari in Monaco everybody will say 'this stopped Mercedes, at least it's the end of the Mercedes dominance of this year'. I'm just trying to make up headlines…”