Rosberg: “Red Bull is a long way away”

Red Bull is quite far away and it will be difficult for rivals, including Mercedes, to catch up: Nico Rosberg thinks so, who after some good tests found himself in difficulty with his W02 in Australia.

“It must be said that Sebastian and Red Bull are well ahead of the others. Among the pursuers, we want to play an important role and improve on last year's fourth place,” Nico told Sport Bild.

Norbert Haug admitted that catching Red Bull "will be difficult". Helmut Marko, motorsports consultant for Red Bull, also doubts Mercedes' recovery: “Very few teams can make a single-seater truly more competitive. Besides us there are only Ferrari and McLaren,” he told Sportwoche.

Mercedes' first target at Sepang will be to resolve the problems seen in Melbourne, including the KERS malfunction: "Strange that it worked on the McLaren and not on us," commented Haug.

Filippo Ronchetti