Mercedes deny tyre pressure crackdown cause of struggles

Team boss Toto Wolff has scoffed at rumours that Mercedes was only dominating Formula 1 before because it was regularly pushing the limits of Pirelli's tyre pressure guidelines.

"It's no conspiracy. It's paranoia. We didn't do anything dodgy. It was cleared by the FIA. The Pirelli limits were no contributing factor to our performance," Wolff added.

He acknowledged, however, that Mercedes now has crucial work to do to understand the true cause, "It is not just for the race here, which will be very difficult anyway even though we will give everything, but it is very important that we do not make the same mistakes that we made here in the next weekends."

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton admitted in Singapore, "These tyres for some reason aren't working on our car. I'm challenging my team to find out what it is, whether it's tyre pressures or temperatures or blankets or ride heights, I'm asking."