Mercedes believes its car will suit the tight streets of Monaco this weekend as it returns to the scene of one of the flashpoints between its two drivers in last year's championship battle.
Mercedes has won four of five races this year and comes to Monaco off the back of its most dominant victory of the season in Spain. Although the circuit characteristics of Monaco and Spain are completely different, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff believes the car will also be quick on Monte Carlo.
"We saw in Spain that our car had a good advantage in the tight third sector, so we head to Monaco with some optimism," Wolff said. "But there is no point talking about any gap to the opposition. You have to earn every advantage and it can turn around very quickly if you're not on top of your game - especially in Monaco."
Mercedes executive director technical, Paddy Lowe, added: "It's highly demanding on the car with a lot of gear changes and a bumpy surface to contend with. We'll also see the supersoft compound for the first time this season - although even that will be a challenge in terms of getting temperature into the tyre. We've had a good car at Monaco in the past two seasons and this year's model remains strong in low-speed corners. It's a real driver's circuit and we should be set for an exciting intra-team battle throughout the weekend. Overtaking is extremely difficult, so nailing a good lap in qualifying will be crucial."
Last year the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg boiled over in Monaco after Rosberg ran wide at Mirabeau during qualifying and prevented Hamilton setting a quick lap. The incident kick started Rosberg's strongest run of form in 2014 and Wolff is expecting more ups and downs this year between the two.
"Barcelona was a great weekend and the drivers did a perfect job in the race. We saw the advantage swing between them last year and I think we will see more of that in 2015. They are mentally tough, resilient and hate to lose - they push each other all the time to lift their performance and that lifts the performance of the whole team."