Wolff: There is no silver bullet

Mercedes head to the Singapore Grand Prix somewhat nervous thanks to memories of their inexplicable no show at the race last year, a below par performance which may still baffle the F1 world champion team 12 months down the road.

Team boss Toto Wolff recalls, "We weren't competitive there last year and I think we understood why. We made some conclusions that helped us in the following races and throughout the season, and in Singapore [this year] we are going to check if we were right.

"There is no silver bullet or one thing that went wrong, but many things probably related to each other. This is why I'm really curious and excited to see how Singapore is going to work."

The nature of the Marina Bay Circuit and it's night race characteristics may have brought out the weaknesses in last year's car which was the pace setter at every other venue on the grand prix schedule.

Last year Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg qualified fifth and sixth respectively, with Rosberg finishing fourth while Hamilton retired with a power unit problem.

Wolff explained, "You can see where we got it right is that our car is the best compromise over 21 races and you need to have a chassis, engine and aero combination that works well on average."

"And then you have outliers and there are teams that are doing extremely well on circuits like Singapore because they are high downforce, but they are not competitive on a circuit like Monza."

"You can play the blame game and say the engine is not good enough, the car is draggy and has a rake like you are doing a handstand - but then you can't expect it to go fast on the straights."

"It's about finding the best compromise, so let's see what happens in Singapore," added Wolff who has seen his cars win on 13 occasions (out of 14 races) so far this season.