Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is expecting another fierce battle with Ferrari at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Since the summer break, the two manufacturers have gone head-to-head with the Silver Arrows benefitting from their rivals’ problems to end a three-race win drought last time out in Sochi.
And though Mercedes will admit they were outpaced by the Scuderia for much of the weekend, the end result did offer a confidence lift.
“Claiming a 1-2 in Sochi after three races without a win was a great feeling,” Wolff said in his Japan preview.
“We delivered a strong race in Russia, made the most of our opportunities and both Lewis [Hamilton] and Valtteri [Bottas] drove flawlessly.
“We brought home 44 points, built the gap in both championships and are highly motivated to keep our foot on the throttle for the remaining five races.”
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Next up though sees one of F1’s great circuits at Suzuka which will test every aspect of the cars and drivers, for Mercedes too, it will see their final updates for the W10.
“We’ll bring some minor upgrades to the car in Japan which will hopefully help us take a step in the right direction,” the team boss said.
“There will be little things that we are just interested to explore, but not the big steps that we had and we pushed very hard until the summer.
“However, we know that we need to extract absolutely everything from our car and the tyres if we want to be able to challenge for a win.”
This weekend could also see Mercedes make history as they can claim a sixth successive Constructors’ Championship by scoring 14 more points than Ferrari.
And recent results at Suzuka certainly don’t rule that possibility out.
“We have a strong track record there, having won every Japanese Grand Prix in the hybrid era, but we expect this year to be challenging given the strength of our opponents,” added Wolff.
“It will be a very close battle on track – and one that we very much look forward to. Our targets for the final quarter of the season is clear and it’s up to us to make sure we achieve them.”