Silver Arrows uncharacteristically off the pace last year
Monday 19 September 2016 14:35, UK
Mercedes hope they have solved their Singapore woes of 12 months ago, but admit there are fears heading into this weekend's race.
At the Marina Bay Circuit in 2015 the Silver Arrows were uncharacteristically off the pace, qualifying nearly 1.5 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel's pole time for Ferrari.
In the race neither Lewis Hamilton nor Nico Rosberg finished on the podium, which happened on only one other occasion that season.
"This was not a good race for us last year and a lot of work has been done during the intervening 12 months to understand why that was," said executive director (technical) Paddy Lowe.
"It's a matter of great interest for us as a team to see if we can come back and get it right this time around. Of course, we haven't been able to test on the circuit, so all of our theories are just theories at this stage.
"We've got a lot more work ahead to get ourselves in a good position during practice, to qualify well and then to have a strong race."
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff echoed those thoughts adding: "Only performance on the racetrack can prove our conclusions right. We are curious and excited to see how it goes."
The previous two races at Spa and Monza have played to the strengths of the Mercedes W07, but Wolff is expecting a tougher battle this weekend.
"Ferrari were mighty around this circuit last year and it will suit the high downforce design philosophy followed by Red Bull, so we must not make the mistake of thinking we are favourites this weekend," the Austrian said.
