Wolff: We are still the challengers

Prior to the Australian Grand Prix the consensus was that Ferrari had the edge over Mercedes, but that proved a fallacy as the World Champions cleaned up with hardly a challenge Down Under.

Heading to round two in the Bahrain desert this weekend, Wolff remains wary, "After the Barcelona test, we felt that we were the challengers. Whatever the Melbourne result says, our mindset hasn't changed since then."

"One race doesn't determine the pecking order for the rest of the season. We need to extract every bit of performance from our package and keep on working hard to improve the car over the weekend to be competitive. We've had some great racing in recent years in Bahrain, so I'm looking forward to an exciting weekend."

"We achieved the perfect score at the opening round of the 2019 Formula One season in Australia, but that doesn't change our approach for the upcoming races. It's a long season, we know we have a tough challenge on our hands and Toto is expecting a tight fight at the front of the field in Bahrain."

"Claiming the maximum 44 points race from the first race was a fantastic result, we could not have asked for a better start to the season. But the fight has only just begun: Ferrari will try everything they can to hit back and Melbourne showed that Red Bull will have something to say in the fight, too.

"We've seen the potential of Ferrari's package in Barcelona, so we expect them to come back strong in Bahrain, with Red Bull in the mix as well. We will see a very different race in Bahrain, where the weekend presents unique challenges, especially the change in conditions between the sessions."

"FP1 and FP3 take place in the middle of the day when both the air and the track can be very hot; FP2, Qualifying and the Race, on the other hand, are held in the evening in considerably cooler temperatures."

"These temperature swings make it very tricky to set up the car and find the right configuration for the sessions that really count," added the Mercedes team chief.