Mercedes AMG Petronas
Head of Mercedes Motorsport Toto Wolff has warned their rivals that they will not drop one percent of effort as they bid to win the 2014 championship.
Nico Rosberg won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix to take an early lead in the drivers' championship but team-mate Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire after a cylinder on his Mercedes W05 failed. Wolff insists that Mercedes must ensure that reliability improves if they are to win the world title.
"The first race in Australia left us with mixed emotions," said Wolff.
"Neither of our drivers put a foot wrong all weekend but unfortunately only one came away with the result he deserved. We know that reliability will be crucial to this long season and we have been working hard to improve the situation for the race in Malaysia.
"We made a solid start to the year in Melbourne, but we are very aware that not one percent of effort can be dropped if we are to remain competitive."
Rosberg reckons that whereas the threat of rain is usually the biggest talking point at the Malaysian Grand Prix, reliability will be the focus this weekend.
"Normally the weather is seen as the biggest challenge here but this season is different, with reliability the focus of everyone's attention," said the German driver.
"Of course, it will still be hot, humid and probably wet at some stage too, so it should be a fascinating weekend. Australia was the perfect start to my season, but it also highlighted that we're not 100% there yet in terms of reliability.
"We've had two weeks before this race to identify all the things that we can do better, so hopefully we can bring both cars home for a good result this weekend and continue our strong start to the year."
