“If you gauge my season, then the championship could be lost by starts”, he told reporters in Singapore.
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As Singapore citizens have been advised to exercise extra vigilance due to the recent outbreak of the Zika virus in the city-state, Mercedes will need to be equally as wary of their Red Bull and Ferrari rivals on a track that nullifies the German team’s power advantage.
“Ferrari were mighty around this circuit past 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 favorites this weekend”.
Rosberg who will be starting his 200th grand prix this weekend said the team has learnt from last year’s race but remained guarded on the team’s chances. “We’ve made massive gains over the last 12 months and if you look at what we have coming in the future, we should be able to fight towards the end of the year with teams that are a above us at the moment, and Ferrari would be one of them”, Button boldly predicted. I believe we are a group of winners, so if there is a bit of pressure on us to get it done then I think we will thrive off that.
His young teammate Max Verstappen, who took the only non-Mercedes victory this year in Spain, was cautiously optimistic, saying Friday’s practice sessions will shed more light on whether Mercedes is vulnerable. “I was 43 points behind at one stage, so I feel pretty good still and we are still leading the championship despite all the engine penalties I’ve had and not the greatest start in the last race”.
Hamilton has started from pole position at seven races this season but of those seven has only twice retained the lead into the first corner (once in Austria and once at the British Grand Prix when it was a rolling start).
For Ferrari, this race represents the best victory chance of the season.
“We didn’t have the greatest weekend there past year”, added Hamilton.
“Mercedes had a very hard time here previous year, but I don’t think there’s a guarantee that that happens again”.
“Last year we were blown away by the fact that we somehow got it wrong”, Hamilton said to the local press.
“I definitely think we’re not going to have as many problems as we had past year. But if we do, we’ve got the tools to correct it”.
– Whilst Rosberg (£20m) has kept the title battle very much alive, it is Lewis Hamilton (£23m) that is taking fantasy glory, with his 102 point haul in the past two races and a 50% gain over his team-mate.
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Ricciardo performed a “shoey” after finishing on the podium in the last two races in Belgium and Italy, but said he’ll guzzle from his galoshes again only if he wins in Singapore.
