Pre-season tempers Mercedes Spanish GP hopes

Mercedes' performance during pre-season testing in Spain means the team is cautious ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, according to Toto Wolff.

With the two pre-season tests taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – the same venue as the race on Sunday – Ferrari topped the times as Mercedes struggled to completely understand the behavior of its 2017 car this year. Returning for the start of the European season, Wolff says that experience remains at the back of his mind.

"Barcelona will be interesting as our pre-season was not spectacular in Spain," Wolff said. "It's a very different track to Sochi and we'll be running with harder tires. We are taking this season one race at a time. If we deliver the best possible work from Friday onwards, then we'll be ready to win and fight with Ferrari. "

Although Mercedes has shared victory in the opening four races equally with Ferrari, Wolff believes Red Bull – set to bring a major update to Spain – will also be fighting for wins at some stage this season.

"This inter-team battle is a totally different situation that what we have seen over the last three years. You simply need to adapt to the challenge and that's what we are doing, playing the hunter as well as being the hunted. At the moment there are two top teams fighting for both championships and I expect Red Bull will also eventually join the club.

"The small margins we are seeing this season are demonstrated by the closeness at the top of the drivers' championship and even more so by the one point advantage we have in the constructors'. This fight will continue on to the end of the season and we will be prepared for that battle."

Reflecting on what Mercedes has learned from its performance in Russia – where Valtteri Bottas won but Lewis Hamilton was a distant fourth – Wolff says the team needs a greater understanding of the W08 in order to be confident of being able to beat Ferrari at each race.

"I always enjoy going to Russia but it was a tricky weekend for us. On Friday we lacked performance but the engineers made the right decisions that evening and we made a good step on Saturday and Sunday. The prevailing feeling is that there is lots of homework to do to come back stronger with a car that can perform on a consistent level every weekend. I have the feeling that we are moving in the right direction but we need 24/7 shifts to achieve our ultimate targets."