Dominant Mercedes will look to capitalise on fresh woes at Red Bull and Ferrari and hammer home their championship advantage with a fourth straight win at Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Three victories out of three, including one-two finishes in Malaysia and Bahrain, tell the story but the Silver Arrows also received boosts this week from two of their main rivals.
Ferrari were left reeling after team principal Stefano Domenicali quit following a torrid start to the season, including a poor showing 10 days ago in Bahrain.
And Red Bull were handed a setback when they lost their appeal against the stripping of 18 points from Daniel Ricciardo for a fuel-flow violation in Melbourne.
Both incidents will have only heightened the mood at Mercedes, who are top of the constructors’ standings and have Nico Rosberg leading the drivers’ table ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
And with Hamilton a three-time winner at the Shanghai International Circuit, they will be confident of another big points haul this weekend.
“I’m in a really good place at the moment and walking around the garage too, you can see the positive energy within the team right now,” Hamilton said.
“Everyone is focused on getting the maximum from these early races and continuing to build beyond the strong start we’ve made to the season.”
Hamilton’s wheel-to-wheel duel with Rosberg in Bahrain provided this year’s best action and a welcome break from discussion of F1’s technical changes and quiet new hybrid engines.
But much of the focus will again be off the track as Ferrari’s untried new team principal Marco Mattiacci, who moves over from the Italian company’s road car business, makes his F1 debut.
His first task will be to establish the Prancing Horse as the “best of the rest”, according to engineering director Pat Fry. They are currently fifth in the constructors’ standings.
“Currently, our first priority is to establish ourselves as the second best team,” Fry told the team website.
“We are looking at all areas of the car – power unit, aero, suspension. We are trying to make as big a step as we can for each and every race.”
Fry expects a better showing around the 56 laps of the Shanghai circuit after suffering poor traction and a consequent loss of straight-line speed in Bahrain.
But the Englishman would not be drawn on where he expected Ferrari to finish on Sunday. Former world champions Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen were ninth and 10th in Bahrain.
“It’s proving hard to make predictions this year – at least when it comes to who can challenge the current leaders,” Fry said.