Toto Wolff agrees with Ferrari boss' Miami Grand Prix suspicion

During the Japanese Grand Prix, Vasseur said in an interview with Sky Italia that Ferrari needs to stay in touch with Mercedes, because Miami could start a new championship.

He said: "Overall we’re not far off and we know that from Miami onwards it could be a different championship. We need to keep scoring a lot of points, getting on the podium and staying close to Mercedes.

"We have to remain in the fight in the standings. The rate of development across the championship will be very high, which is why we need to keep pushing hard over the coming months to build points and results," Vasseur explained during the weekend.

"Yeah, it's exciting," Wolff said at the Suzuka Circuit in agreement. "I think we would have maybe wished that it continues over into the two Middle East races and we can score a few more points.

"But I agree. It could be the case. People have learned now, teams and drivers are starting to learn how to optimize the systems to their benefit. And we've seen that first indication," the Austrian continued, referring to Oscar Piastri's pace in Japan, who eventually finished second behind Kimi Antonelli.

Wolff believes that thanks to the updates teams can prepare for the next race, which will only take place in May, a restart is on the cards.

"What looked like a home run in the first two races for us isn't the case, and we've always warned. And then, yes, Miami is going to be, for me also, a restart. How are the upgrades going to work that people are bringing? How have we optimized all the other systems? It's going to be exciting," the Mercedes CEO and team principal concluded.

Heading into the break, Antonelli leads George Russell by nine points in the drivers' standings. The closest non-Mercedes driver, Charles Leclerc, is currently 23 points behind.