Wolff: We have to pay attention to Ferrari

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Ferrari’s appearance at the China Grand Prix is ​​further proof of the Italian team’s progress in the 2015 season.

Ferrari defeated Mercedes in Malaysia, but only this one with Lewis Hamilton’s first place and Nico Rosberg’s second place quickly got back on track.

With Vettl’s third place, and Raikkonen just behind him in fourth, they proved we need to stay focused on Ferrari, Wolff says.

“It was a big win for the team, but it wasn’t easy. It was harder than we expected. At the start of the race we tried to get as much of a difference as possible over Ferrari, but they were really strong. We had to save on tires. We worked well with both drivers in the first third of the race. We did whatever it took to stay in the top two. We had to change the last stop so we could keep Vettl behind Nice. It can be clear from Sunday’s race that Ferrari has taken a big step forward over the winter. They were competitive in Malaysia, very strong in China and they will definitely be fast next weekend in Bahrain as well, ”says Wolff.

Wolff also rejected Rosberg’s claims that Hamilton deliberately slowed him down in the final part of the race.

“He didn’t do it on purpose, we’ve cleared that up now,” Wolff said, adding that it wasn’t about the hatred between the teammates here.

“It was by no means Lewis’ intention to slow down Rosberg to finish in third place or worse. Hamilton didn’t know how much of a difference there was between Rosberg and Vettl, all he knew was that he had to save on tires, so he did.

"After a while, we found out that as a team we were threatening Nice and getting him in trouble, and endangering second place, but it would have been even worse if Lewis hadn't finished the race."

Photos: Mercedes