Mercedes explains: 'Our fight is not with Verstappen'

Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' head of race development, is positive about Mercedes' chances in the Australian Grand Prix. In a press release, Shovlin reflects on the practice sessions, qualifying, and looks ahead to the possible duel with Max Verstappen.

After a good qualifying session, Mercedes will start the Australian Grand Prix from second and third, with only Verstappen ahead of them. It promises to be an interesting race, as the teams have not had particularly many chances to prepare in practice.

"It's been a tricky weekend due to the cool conditions," Shovlin reflects. "But a solid job by the team and drivers to land the tyres in the right window when it counted. We're ahead of our own expectations to be starting second and third. The sessions have been a bit messy with red flags and rain so there's a real lack of long run data for everyone. That will make it difficult to know what the tyres will do. The softer compounds do seem very fragile in the cool conditions; we've tried to create a setup that is going to look after the tyres in the race, but we'll find out tomorrow if we've achieved that."

Verstappen is not on Mercedes' radar

Shovlin has already given up the fight with Verstappen in advance. "Max has shown incredible pace in both races so far. Assuming that carries into tomorrow he'll be able to manage the tyres and build a gap all at the same time. However, our fight at the moment is with Ferrari and Aston and if we can stay ahead of them, we'll be very happy."