Lewis Hamilton lowered expectations of Mercedes fans ahead of the first race, saying Silver Arrows are not where they would want to be.
The only two current indications on the pace of each team are the results of the pre-season testing, which took place about a week ago, and drivers' reactions following the testing.
It is very challenging to assess where each team stands just by looking at the results from the testing, but drivers and their teams already went through some data that they could compare to others, so they have a rough idea of where they stand.
It has been hinted by many that Red Bull's new concept seems to be working the best, and the team from Milton Keynes is going to start from the front.
Mercedes didn't show the strongest pace during the pre-season testing, but it has been suggested that the team was running on a low-power engine mode, which would hide their pace.
Mercedes's technical director, James Allison, assessed the situation for the media after the three days of testing. He proposed that Red Bull would be ahead, but Mercedes should be better in race pace than Ferrari.
This would mean that Mercedes should be maybe second or third best. However, the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton didn't seem too optimistic when talking to the media ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. He said:
"We still have some problems that we're having to work through, and it's still not perfect, but it's definitely a better-starting place from the past two years. We are relatively happy in that respect."
The 2022 and 2023 seasons didn't go well for Mercedes because the team tried to make their zero-pod concept work, but couldn't. This lost the German team a lot of time and resources as well.
Going into 2024, Mercedes completely redesigned their car and was hoping to fight for race wins, maybe even the Championship. However, the 39-year-old added:
"We are not where we want to be; we are not competing with the guys at the front, but we will work towards it."
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