Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes his team leaves Malaysia with ‘question marks’ over its lack of performance compared to their nearest rivals.
While Lewis Hamilton secured his 70th pole position and finished second in the race, Mercedes were unable to show any representative long-run pace all weekend against the Red Bulls and Ferraris, despite bringing a raft of aerodynamic upgrades.
“We leave Malaysia with a lot of question marks and we need to find answers to them in the next days and weeks, to ensure that we keep moving forward and racing at the front in the final quarter of this championship,” said Wolff.
“Lewis did a fantastic job today to score P2 while Valtteri, just like over the rest of the weekend, struggled to match that pace and brought the car home in P5.
“It was clear after just a few laps that both Red Bull and Ferrari had better cars than us today – but we nevertheless managed to score a good number of points and extend our lead in both championships.”
While both Mercedes and Hamilton have extended their respective championship leads with five races remaining, the 45-year old believes the Brackley-based outfit must search for answers as to how they lost so much performance if they wish to win both world championships.
Wolff added: “After a weekend where we have lacked a significant chunk of performance, we couldn’t have imagined such a good outcome, but we can’t let that distract us from the job we have in front of us.”
“We know that gap doesn’t reflect his true level of performance, and it will be a priority for us to put two equally competitive cars on track next weekend in Suzuka. In simple words, there is a lot more work ahead of us if we want to come out on top by Abu Dhabi.”
