Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff is considering the calculation error which allowed Sebastian Vettel to steal victory from Lewis Hamilton in Australia as another “learning experience” for the team.
The world champions were on course to start the Formula 1 2018 season with an easy win in Melbourne before a mid-race Virtual Safety Car allowed the Ferrari driver to pit and emerge in front after the pitwall had overestimated the time it would take to complete his tyre stop.
Vettel’s success came as a stark reminder to the Brackley-based outfit that no matter the performance advantage they may have, nothing is certain and Wolff admits the feeling is still raw.
“We made mistakes and did not perform to our maximum,” he acknowledged ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain GP.
“It reminded us that this is the toughest racing series in the world and every error is punished. It hurt to leave all those points on the table, especially because we know we had the pace to win in Australia.”
Nevertheless, the Austrian conceded it was further proof of how close the battle with Ferrari and potentially Red Bull will be this year and is sure Mercedes have now regrouped.
“We did what we always do after a tough weekend, we made sure that we understand what went wrong and put a process in place to make sure that we don’t see a similar issue in the future,” he said.
“These painful moments are the real learning experiences, mistakes become training.”
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Switching attention to round two this Sunday in the desert, the Mercedes chief maintained the cautious tone he set before Australia with the challenge of Sakhir potentially more suited to Ferrari.
“We expect Bahrain to be another challenging weekend,” he said. “The conditions change drastically between sessions, that makes it extremely difficult to find the right set-up with the car.
“We saw in Melbourne that the Ferraris, in particular, were very quick, so I expect it to be a close battle,” Wolff added.
“We’ve seen some great racing in Bahrain in recent years, particularly between our drivers back in 2014. I think we can look forward to an exciting and competitive weekend.”
