Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff says reliability must not decide title

The fight between the two Mercedes drivers was blown wide open at the Singapore Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton took a win on an evening when Nico Rosberg suffered a car failure, leaving the Briton with a three-point lead in the standings.

With the team having had a run of car failures over the course of the season, there is a risk that there will be further problems in the final five races.

When asked if he was worried that the title could ultimately be decided by such a problem, Wolff said: "That would be obviously something that would not be satisfying at all.

"We don't want to have the spin in there that the championship was decided because one car let the driver down.

"So we need to refocus, get our heads down and keep concentrating and work out what we can do to prevent DNFs, and reliability problems."

Wolff said he was amazed that Mercedes was still having reliability problems, especially because he had instigated a reliability working group at Brackley last winter to address this area.

"We have a great reliability team," he said. "This is a group of people who are really dedicated to reliability and I am really proud of them.

"So it is even more astonishing we keep having those issues. They need to get a grip, but this takes time."

Wolff made it clear just how much he was willing to give to ensure that reliability was sorted, and made reference to injuries he suffered in a cycling accident earlier this year.

"If I or we could make anything more to stop the DNFs, we would do it," he said.

"I would break my arm again to stop the reliability issues. We just have to get on top of the problems."