Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has underlined that the characteristics of the Marina Bay Street Circuit, which hosts this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, should favour rivals Ferrari and Red Bull.
Mercedes has held the advantage at high-speed venues which favour aerodynamic efficiency in 2017, but struggled at low-speed circuits where high-downforce is favoured.
Additionally, while Mercedes dominated Formula 1 between 2014 and 2016, its weakest performances often came at Marina Bay, where it was defeated in 2015 and only narrowly claimed victory 12 months ago.
Wolff is confident that Mercedes has learned from previous defeats, including its displays in Monaco and Hungary this year, but is nonetheless wary that it faces a challenge this weekend.
“Identifying clearly our strengths and our weaknesses has been a strength of our team in recent seasons,” said Wolff.
“As we have pushed to become better and stronger in every area, we have put the finger in the wound in order to understand the root causes of both our good performances and the bad ones.
“In 2015, Singapore provided us with one of the most painful experiences in recent seasons, so we rolled up the sleeves, learned from it and managed to bounce back with a great win last year.
“But notwithstanding that success, this is a circuit we have found difficult to master with its combination of short, sharp corners, relatively short straights and bumpy surface.
“So far this year, we have seen the pendulum swing according to circuit type.
“On the surface, Singapore is the kind of circuit that should favour both Ferrari and Red Bull.
“Both have shown strong performance on low-speed circuits demanding maximum downforce, and we have found life more difficult at those places in 2017.
“Sometimes, characteristics like this are simply in the DNA of a car.
“Nevertheless we learned a lot from our struggles in Monaco, raised our level of performance significantly in Hungary and we have made good progress in understanding what we need to do in order to get the most from the chassis.”
Lewis Hamilton currently leads Sebastian Vettel by three points in the Drivers' Championship, while Mercedes holds a 62-point advantage over Ferrari in the Constructors’ battle.
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