Mercedes Formula 1 supervisor Toto Wolff says rivals Ferrari are top picks to win the current year’s reality title.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has won three of six races and leads Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by 24 focuses before this present end of the week’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Wolff said: “It’s painful but we are not the favourites for this year’s championship. At the moment, it’s Ferrari.
“We need to rise to the challenge to prove we are the team to beat.”
Ferrari’s resurgence taking after a noteworthy arrangement of run changes for 2017 takes after three years of strength by Mercedes.
Despite the fact that Mercedes have demonstrated to have the quickest auto more than one qualifying lap, the Ferrari is more adaptable, works all the more effortlessly in a more extensive scope of conditions and has for the most part seemed to have preference in races.
Hamilton has won two grands prix, in China and Spain, and his new colleague Valtteri Bottas one in Russia, which came against the pursued of play Ferrari overwhelmed qualifying in Sochi.
Wolff said: “This is the reality of the situation now. We have to fight with all that we are worth for every single win, pole position, podium finish and every point. You can no longer expect that when you look at a timesheet the two Mercedes will be right at the top.
“We’ve come into this season with a strong car that has allowed us to win three of the first six races. But it has also caused us more complications than we have seen in previous years.
“Everybody at the factories is working absolutely flat out to assess the current difficulties we are facing – to define our objectives, work with the data we have and then come up with the right solutions.
“Some of these fixes will be short term, others may take longer.
“We’ve had bruising weekends before and it’s about showing resilience and getting up after falling.
“I remember the troubles we had in Singapore in 2015, which hurt badly. We gave ourselves a deadline to address that setback before switching our focus to the next race in Suzuka, which we won.
“We’ve done exactly the same thing after Monaco – addressing the problems before turning our attention to Montreal. We know that this season is a marathon, not a sprint.”
Mercedes’ basic battles this season rotate around a trouble in getting the Pirelli tires to work reliably in their right working temperature window.
The circuit is a progression of moderate corners connected by long straights with a low-hold, low-scraped spot track surface.
It is precisely the kind of track that could give troubles in working the tires, without the quicker, longer corners which work the tires harder and where the Mercedes’ solid fast streamlined features can become an integral factor.
Wolff said: “I’m expecting an interesting weekend in Canada. It could be a tricky race for us in terms of the layout of the track. But, equally, it’s a circuit that suits both of our drivers. Lewis has won a number of times in the past and Valtteri has always gone strongly there for Williams.”
Hamilton has won five times in Canada in nine appearances and it has reliably been one of his most loved tracks.
