Mercedes not regretting long wheelbase despite Singapore slump

Lewis Hamilton is facing an uphill struggle not to lose too much ground to Sebastian Vettel in the Singapore Grand Prix after managing no better than fifth on the grid – with his Ferrari rival on pole position.

The different concepts that Mercedes and Ferrari have adopted this year have led to swings in form – with Mercedes’ longer-wheelbase car dominant at high speed tracks like Silverstone and Monza, and Ferrari better at venues like Monaco and Singapore.

But despite an especially difficult Singapore so far, Wolff still believes that over the course of the campaign his outfit has done the right thing.

“I still believe that our concept is the right concept,” he said. “We didn’t have the difference in wheelbase last year and the year before and 2014 and we always seemed to struggle particularly in Singapore.

"And it is like the years before – you need to stay calm and asses what the reasons could be we are underperforming here.

“On the other hand, we were really outperforming everyone in Monza and Silverstone and some other places, so it is about finding the right compromise.”

Although the situation has looked especially difficult in Singapore, Wolff still thought his team had done as best as it could have hoped for.

“I think it is our yearly wake-up call. I actually think, and this might sound overly optimistic, and I am not, that what we have seen is the pace of the car around Singapore.

“We had years like in 2015 where we were 1.5 seconds off the leaders in a year where we have dominated. So we just need to continue to assess what is making our car perform less good in comparison to our enemies in Singapore.”

Although Mercedes is facing a big challenge in the Singapore race, Wolff still sensed that there could be opportunities – as he talked about an ‘interesting’ strategy on the soft tyres

“I think we are in a position that we don’t like to be with P5 and P6, but this provides opportunities, strategic opportunities, and our car was very good on the softs,” he said. “We have had a brief discussion before and it is quite interesting.”

But he knew things were not going to be easy.

“It will be difficult because when you look at the Fridays, the Red Bulls had the fastest long-run pace,” he said.

“They have the advantage of having two cars there against one Ferrari, so in terms of pace it is probably these three cars that will be the quickest.

“But I think Lewis, where he was on Friday and where he is now, he can hang on to the group. And I wouldn’t be giving up until it is over.”