Mercedes believe Ferrari have matched their engine power

Mercedes believe Ferrari have closed the gap to them in terms of engine power in 2018. Although Lewis Hamilton took pole position in Australia by six tenths from Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, the Scuderia set the quickest speeds in all three sectors across Saturday at Albert Park.

As in 2017, Mercedes are on the back foot after the first round, although a trip to Bahrain perhaps plays into Vettel's hands, he won in Sakhir last year after Valtteri Bottas struggled from pole.

Much has been made of the Hamilton-styled 'party mode' available to the Silver Arrows after their dominant result in qualifying a fortnight ago.

But the reigning champion believes Ferrari are just as capable of producing similar speeds on Saturdays.

"I don't have a figure, the team hasn't mentioned a figure to me," Hamilton said.

"They said in qualifying we think that we are power-wise equal to them, they made a really big improvement, and [the team said] that in the race we might have a slight edge on them.

"It's hard to say from one race, they had a different run profile particularly in the race they were doing something different fuelling wise.

"You'll get a much better idea over the coming races."

A software "bug" left Hamilton high and dry in Melbourne as Vettel snuck victory under the Virtual Safety Car, robbing the Mercedes man of a deserved victory.

"I am still happy with it [the Australia weekend]," Hamilton said. "But I guess it's that I started first and finished second. You never ever want to move backwards.

"That is difficult for us all but everyone in the team felt the same pain. After the race we all got together and sat and had a drink.

"I come here really strong and positive and [have] a good direction about how to move forward. That is why this is such a great team."