• Mercedes news

Pecking order should shift in Singapore - Mercedes

The Singapore circuit demands a different set-up to Monza and Spa © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff believes the return to full-downforce circuits at the upcoming flyaways will shift the balance of power back towards Mercedes before the end of the year.

Red Bull excelled at the last two races at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, where teams brought special low-drag packages to their cars to suit the long straights. However, this weekend's race in Singapore marks a return to maximum downforce set-ups, which were last used at the Hungarian Grand Prix where Lewis Hamilton won for Mercedes.

"This weekend's race in Singapore begins a gruelling series of seven races in ten weekends for the team and we are all focused on regaining some of the momentum we lost at the past two races," Wolff said. "We expect the return to maximum downforce configuration to suit our car and we may see another shift in the competitive order between the teams.

"We will bring new developments to the car once again for this race and we are all focused on maximising the opportunities for both Lewis and Nico, in order to re-establish ourselves in second position in the constructors' standings."

Team principal Ross Brawn said Mercedes has continued to work hard on its 2013 car even though the shift is now moving towards 2014.

"There has been a lot of hard work at our factories in Brackley and Brixworth since the summer shutdown and the developments that we have found will be introduced during the upcoming flyaway races," he said. "Whilst our design and development priorities are naturally increasing towards our 2014 efforts, our aim is to extract the maximum from the car we are racing and regain our second position in the Constructors' Championship. This will require a big effort from the team combined with consistent points finishes from Nico and Lewis."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.