Mercedes "cannot afford" Malaysian GP repeat

Mercedes says it must do better and cannot afford a repeat of the Malaysian Grand Prix, insisting Ferrari's victory was a wake-up call the team must react to.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 with the drivers as the grid observes the national anthem

The German squad started the Sepang weekend as favourite following a dominant weekend in Australia, but was outclassed by Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel taking a commanding win ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admits Ferrari has raised its game, and says his team must do the same in this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

"We left Malaysia with plenty to think about," said Wolff. "It may have been a good result for the sport – but for us, it was a wake-up call.

"This is something you cannot afford to happen often and, although we had two cars on the podium, we have been looking very carefully at every area where we could have performed better.

"Our opposition has raised its game and we must now raise ours even further; as we have said since Melbourne, we expect a season-long battle for both world championships and we must maximise every opportunity.

"We have the weapons at our disposal – and we need to make the most of them this weekend."

Hamilton: "Room for improvement"

Hamilton, who questioned the team's strategy in Malaysia, now reckons Mercedes made the right calls, although he concedes there is still room for improvement.

"Malaysia was a tough weekend," he said.

"It always is with the heat – but with car problems on Friday, rain during qualifying on Saturday and a race which didn't go to plan on Sunday, this one was particularly challenging.

"I think ultimately we made the best choices we could – but there is always room for improvement and we've been working hard to analyse everything for the next race in China."