Mercedes admit they must do better

Both David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen retired from the race around the Sepang circuit - which is notoriously hard on engines due to its heat and humidity - before the half distance mark.

"Two engine failures in this grand prix is a very bad outcome for us," said Haug. "We certainly need to do a much better job next time. We will now analyse in detail what caused the engines to fail to ensure that these problems don't occur again."

Coulthard, who has yet to score a point this year, said: "I'm disappointed with today's result because I believe both Kimi and myself could have secured a couple of good finishes. All of a sudden the engine went onto nine cylinders. I didn't know exactly what caused the problem but the team decided it was safer to retire.

"It's been a difficult weekend, really. However, we have to stay focused and I know we have a package which is capable of winning races, but we just need a bit of reliability," Coulthard added.

Both he and Raikkonen were running in the top four of the race when the gremlins struck.