Wolff: Ferrari’s advantage is ‘track specific’

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said a pattern is emerging when Ferrari are able to get the upper hand on the Silver Arrows.

The Scuderia secured their third front-row lock-out of the season in Budapest, with Sebastian strong odds-on favourite to win his fourth race of 2017 and extend his World Championship lead.

But Wolff believes Ferrari's car works incredibly well on certain tracks.

"I think it's circuit specific," Wolff said.

"There are three tracks that are similar, high downforce tracks, Monaco, Budapest and Singapore, and we are starting to see a little bit of a pattern.

"I think it will be similar in Singapore as well. The DNA of our car is very good on the fast tracks, but Ferrari is simply better with its shorter wheelbase on tracks like this one."

After a disappointing qualifying session from a Mercedes perspective, Wolff was still able to take some positives.

"In Monte Carlo we had problems much worse than here," he added.

"The car was new for us, and we discovered a pattern that we didn't see while being in Monaco.

"We have solved the problems – and this is what I take positive from the day: that we have become much closer to Ferrari on this type of circuit."

With both Mercedes cars starting on the second row, Wolff is hopeful that there will be an opportunity to attack before it becomes notoriously difficult to overtake.

"There is definitely an opportunity off the start," he said.

"If you have a good getaway, the straight line is 600-700m, there is an overtaking opportunity.

"And around Turn 1 and Turn 2 there are opportunities. But from then on it becomes a bit more difficult.

"For me it is still motor racing, a lot of things can happen during the race and we will see what end result it will be. From the pure car performance it is about damage limitation."