Toto Wolff is confident Mercedes will bounce straight back at the Japanese Grand Prix after suffering a dramatic drop in performance in Singapore at the weekend.
Mercedes has dominated F1 since the introduction of new engine regulations at the start of 2014, but in Singapore was not even in the running for a podium. Nico Rosberg finished fourth after inheriting the position from team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who retired when a minor part broke on his Mercedes engine.
After qualifying over a second off the pace of Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari on the street circuit, Mercedes quickly identified the tyres as the problem as it struggled to extract the same grip levels as its rivals from the rubber. But with Singapore unlike any other track on the calendar, Wolff has told his team not to panic about the sudden dip in performance.
"You need to find the right balance, you cannot write it off and say that was a one-off, but on the other hand you can't say we are terrified by this because then you are going into panic mode and that would be completely inappropriate and wrong," he said. "It's just about analysing it and we believe it is a circuit-specific problem on the tyres where we didn't manage to get the grip and this is how you can explain this gap. We hope to prove that in Suzuka unless we have very heavy rain coming again."
Wolff is confident the car has not lost any performance since the Italian Grand Prix two weeks prior to Singapore.
"I'm always on the pessimistic side, but I don't believe we are losing car performance from one weekend to another in the dramatic way that we did and I also don't believe somebody found a second and half from one weekend to another. It's the tyre and we have spoken to the drivers and the degradation is just massive and unexplainable for us."
Vettel closed to within 49 points of Hamilton in the standings with victory in Singapore, but Wolff pointed out that Ferrari has also struggled at certain circuits this year.
"We have already seen that in Monza and when they brought their new engine they clearly made a step forward. They continue to develop the car, but we shouldn't fall into depression. Remember Spa where they had a difficult weekend and the car wasn't good enough for the podium. We just need to stay focused and aware that we are having a very solid team, solid car and a solid engine."