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Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says the team's "challengers" mindset has not changed despite its strong performance at the Australian Grand Prix.
After pre-season testing, Ferrari was tipped by many to be the leading team heading into the new season. However, in the qualifying session for the season-opening race, Mercedes blitzed the competition and was over seven-tenths faster than the Scuderia outfit.
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Ferrari failed to make it onto the podium in the race while Valtteri Bottas led home a Mercedes one-two.
Despite its dominance, Wolff has played down suggestions that it will once again be a stretch ahead of its rivals in Bahrain.
“After the Barcelona test, we felt that we were the challengers,” Wolff said. “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.”
Wolff is confident that Ferrari will hit back this weekend, as it looks to makes the underachieving race in Melbourne a thing of the past.
"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,” Wolff said.
“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.”
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calle.itw
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Ooh Toto. Always these funny jokes. :3