Mercedes boss Toto Wolff wants his team’s underperformance at the Canadian Grand Prix to act as “a major wake-up call” given its Formula 1 rivals' stronger challenge i𒀰n 2018.

Wolff saw Valtteri Bottas have to settle for second place behind winner Sebastian Vettel for Ferrari, who has taken the F1 world driver✤s’ championship lead off Lewis Hamilton, with🅘 the British driver struggling to fifth place with both tyre performance and cooling issues with his Mercedes at the Canadian GP.

With Mercedes outperformed in Canada at a circuit it has dominated in recent years, having taken threꦑe consecutive wins in the past three seasons, team principal Wolff has issued a warning to his team but accepts the change in pecking order is largely down to gains by its rivals Ferrari and Red Bull.

“I think this is a major wake up call for every single member of the team,” Wolff said. “Everybody needs to assess how to ❀improve performance in order to optimize on those marginal gains, because those marginal gains are going to make all the difference.

“The margins have become so tight that if you look at the fastest lap of the race there’s five cars within a tenth. This is why this year’s world championship will be decided by the team who makes the least ﷺmistakes, brings the best development on th𒀰e engine every single weekend.

“That is the new reality. Six cars can win races and it’s 🌟a three-way fight. You can’t take anything for granted and think it will be a walk in the park. That’s the kind of wake-up call you get.”

“I think you need to ൩get the ri✃ght balance between pushing development very hard, adding performance to the car and at the same time keeping reliability. This team has been extremely strong in the past, keeping the reliability at a high level. That is not the part that worries me.

“We have seen Ferrari thaꦯt has been the stronger car, stronger in qualifying, stronger in the race, and at no time did we have a real chance to fight fꦛor the win.”