Preseason testing and the early pace in Australia of Mercedes had many in the Formula 1 paddock fearing another walkover of a season, but two rounds down the road they have yet to win a race and on each occasion, they were beaten fair and square when victory could have been theirs.
Speaking ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend Mercedes chief Toto Wolff pulled no punches, "This is not the start to the 2018 season we had hoped for. For two races in a row, we did damage limitation with one car and lost the win with the other."
"Both races were decided by fine margins, but that doesn't make it any better; in fact, it probably makes it more frustrating."
The competition is extremely close in 2018 and Melbourne was already a strong reminder that there is absolutely no margin for imperfections or mistakes in this year's title fight."
"While we saw a completely different race in Bahrain and lost for different reasons, the message stayed the same: In order to win this year, we need to bring our A game."
Bahrain was supposed to suit the W09, but Ferrari locked out the front row with Sebastian Vettel on pole and only misfortune denied Kimi Raikkonen a podium on the day.
Wolff explained, "I think our team showed the right reaction after the chequered flag in Bahrain: instead of being satisfied with the double podium finish, everyone realised that P2 and P3 was the minimum result we should expect with both Red Bulls and Kimi out of the race."
"So we started to analyse what went wrong in Bahrain in order to improve for China and come back stronger. We're quite happy that this is a back-to-back race as that means that we won't have to wait long to get racing again."
"Shanghai has been a good track for us in the past, so hopefully we will get the chance to right some of the wrongs of the past weeks and show a performance that is worthy of Mercedes," concluded the Mercedes chief.
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