"Mercedes guided in wrong direction by tyres" - Wolff

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that his Mercedes team were guided in the wrong direction in the end-of-season test in Abu Dhabi last year, in terms of tyres.

The data that was gathered in after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix testing last year sent Mercedes in the wrong direction with its compound selections in Canada last weekend, according to Wolff.

Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton finished second and fifth respectively, meaning it was a disappointing weekend for a team with Mercedes' standards.

The world champions struggled to get the best out of Pirelli's softest available tyres.

Mercedes took a different stratergy to their rivals in Montreal, meaning their drivers were only allowed five sets of the Hypersoft compound for the entire weekend.

"There's not one single reason why we haven't performed like we should but certainly all of us in the team are aware that based on the findings in Abu Dhabi, we were guided in the wrong direction," Wolff told Crash.net.

"Having had one, or two more sets to accommodate the drivers better for qualifying would have maybe helped us secure pole position.

"But I'm saying maybe because we don't know, it's not only one factor.

"It's always those many factors that all contribute to solid performance. But I guess that putting Lewis on the hyper on Saturday morning was probably too late. But we are aware of that, and that played a role."

Wolff labelled the Canadian Grand Prix as a "major wake-up call" immediately after the race and believes that this problem won't be solved easily.

"I'm the opposite of confident," Wolff said.

"I think this is - we've had it in the past - a major wake-up call for every single member of the team.

"Everybody needs to assess how to improve performance in order to optimise on those marginal gains, because those marginal gains are going to make all of the difference.