Wolff doesn't "talk Mercedes" down and sees a "strong" Ferrari

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff doesn't believe he talks his side down, despite consistently backing Ferrari to outperform the world champions this season.

Wolff said prior to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend, that Ferrari were the favourites going into the street race in Baku, but the Silver Arrows recorded a fourth successive one-two finish.

"What can I say? We don't talk ourselves down," the Mercedes team principal insisted. "It's that we see a strong Ferrari on Friday and Saturday, and I still believe Charles (Leclerc) was the fastest man on the track today (Sunday).

"But just like in Bahrain, you can now say, 'stop saying these things', but we think there are so many things we need to understand and improve even better. We did some things for the race yesterday, we admitted some in qualifying, so we had a good car for the race, then (Max) Verstappen was the fastest, then we were the weather, and at the beginning Charles flew on the mediums."

Sebastian Vettel, who finished a place behind the two Mercedes' on Sunday in P3, has insisted Ferrari are no longer the favourites for the next race, which takes place in Barcelona in a couple of weeks time.

"They are now doing the same thing as we are: talking the other person up," Wolff said on Vettel's comments.