Wolff relishing Mercedes "underdog" status

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff believes that Mercedes are underdogs for the 2017 Formula 1 championship, and have been since the start of the season. After six rounds of the championship completed, Mercedes and Ferrari have won three races each, with the latest in Monaco going the way of Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel.

Since the introduction of the V6 Hybrid engines in 2014, Mercedes has dominated the sport, winning 51 races out of the 59 from 2014 to 2016. This season, however, with a new regulation change focusing on aerodynamics, Ferrari has caught up and are challenging the Silver Arrows for the trophy.

Wolff says that he is enjoying the prospect of being the underdog: "I like the notion of the underdog because people obviously want to see the underdog win.  As a matter of fact, I think we have been since the beginning of the season. We have been dropping in and out of the tyre window. We never had two drivers or two cars within that window. 

"We have seen an exceptional performance of Valtteri in Sochi which we were not able to replicate on Lewis' car, we have seen an exceptional performance of Lewis in Barcelona and that inconsistency has been following through the season.  And on the opposite side, Ferrari put the car on the track in Barcelona and were quick from the get go, so yes, we are the underdog, yes we need to catch up. This is the reality of it at the moment."

In the constructor standings, Ferrari has taken the lead and are ahead by 17 points. Meanwhile, in the driver standings, Vettel leads the way as he has done since round 1 in Australia, now with his biggest advantage so far - 25 points.

Fergal Walsh