Mercedes does not want to believe itself favorite at Marina Bay

Victory, Mercedes already knew it in Singapore in 2014, thanks to Lewis Hamilton. However, last year, the German team suffered a crushing defeat on the Marina Bay Circuit, the Briton being forced to retire (breakage of a metal fastener causing a leak in the supercharger), and Nico Rosberg only taking fourth place, far from the winner Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), after fighting all weekend with a blatant lack of grip.

A liability which leads to a more than cautious approach on the part of the world champions before returning to the city-state this weekend. Certainly, the W07 Hybrids have won the last nine events of the year, but the status of favorite is not on the agenda according to Toto wolff.

“Ferrari performed well at this circuit last year and it suits the design philosophy with high downforce. Red Bull, so we must not make the mistake of thinking that we are favorites this weekend. » admits the boss of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport.

Only near-perfection of the preparation will be able to help his team according to the Austrian. Mercedes also believes that it has understood and resolved these problems on this route. Regaining performance on this track is also one of Mercedes' objectives.

“A lot of work has been done over the past twelve months to understand our concerns, underlines Paddy Lowe, executive director in charge of technology. It's of great interest to us as a team to see if we can come back here and get it right this time. Of course, we haven't been able to test ourselves on the track, so all of our theories are just theories at this point. »

“We have to optimize everything to achieve a solid result, continues Toto Wolff. We failed to do so last year and, although we think we now understand why, only performance on track can confirm our conclusions. We are curious and excited to see how this will play out. »