"There is absolutely no margin for imperfections or mistakes in this year's title fight," says Wolff as Ferrari make winning start
Thursday 13 December 2018 11:49, UK
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has bemoaned a "frustrating" start to the 2018 season and says the world champions must be perfect from now on if they are going to recover.
For the first time in the hybrid era a team other than Mercedes have won both of the opening two races of the season, with Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel sealing top spot in Australia and Bahrain.
While Mercedes had the pace for victory at the season-opener only to be thwarted by a Virtual Safety Car, they were lagging behind their rivals for most of the Bahrain weekend before almost snatching victory through tyre strategy.
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In both those races the Silver Arrows, who are coming off four consecutive double title-winning seasons, have only had one car seriously challenging for victory after Valtteri Bottas' crash in Melbourne qualifying and Lewis Hamilton's grid penalty in the desert.
"This is not the start to the 2018 season we had hoped for," admitted Mercedes team principal and CEO Wolff.
"For two races in a row, we did damage limitation with one car and lost the win with the other. Both races were decided by fine margins, but that doesn't make it any better; in fact, it probably makes it more frustrating."
And Wolff is not expecting Ferrari and Red Bull's threat to disappear anytime soon, adding: "The competition is extremely close in 2018 and Melbourne was already a strong reminder that there is absolutely no margin for imperfections or mistakes in this year's title fight.
"While we saw a completely different race in Bahrain and lost for different reasons, the message stayed the same: In order to win this year, we need to bring our A game."
Ferrari are currently 10 points clear of Mercedes in the constructors' standings, while Hamilton is already "thinking about the world championship" after slipping 17 points behind title rival Vettel.
Wolff felt Mercedes had a "90 per cent" chance of winning in Bahrain through their one-stop strategy before Vettel held on, and is optimistic the team can bounce back at a Chinese GP which is live and exclusive on Sky Sports F1 this weekend.
"I think our team showed the right reaction after the chequered flag in Bahrain," he explained. "Instead of being satisfied with the double podium finish, everyone realised that P2 and P3 was the minimum result we should expect."
"We're quite happy that this is a back-to-back race as that means that we won't have to wait long to get racing again.
"Shanghai has been a good track for us in the past, so hopefully we will get the chance to right some of the wrongs of the past weeks and show a performance that is worthy of Mercedes."
