Mercedes had a similar pace to Aston Martin and Ferrari in the first two races of the 2023 Formula 1 season. In front of these three teams was Red Bull.
A similar picture was expected in Australia as the teams have not made significant changes to their cars in recent weeks.
Friday revealed that this was the case.
Speaking after the day, Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin said: “This track is similar to Jeddah in many ways, and we haven’t made any major changes to the car since then.”
“That’s why we came here thinking that we have to deal with the problems we faced in the last two races.”
“It’s been a complicated day because of the red flag in the first practice session when the GPS systems failed, and the afternoon rain.”
“We found some good aspects in terms of settings, but we haven’t been able to put all the good parts together yet.”
“So we have to look at the data from our tests, put everything together, which is normal business on a Friday night.”
“Tomorrow the track will be even colder, so it may be difficult to get the tires in the right range for qualifying.
“But we have to have the right conditions in the last training session to better understand the situation.” said.
