Lewis Hamilton and George Russell agree that it will be very difficult for anyone to compete with Red Bull again this weekend.
Max Verstappen strolled to victory in the season-opening race in Bahrain, with Sergio Perez comfortably coming home second. Track conditions in Jeddah this weekend should be more favourable for their rivals, but still the performance gap is expected to still be significant.
Russell has Verstappen and Perez finishing first and second again – though he is optimistic about his team's chances of making it to the podium with them. "The track is very different and the tarmac is really different which has a much bigger effect than some people may think," he said.
"Realistically, the performances are going to swing more than two tenths – plus or minus – for any team, so if you go with that approach then the fight could well and truly be on for the last step of the podium with Ferrari and Aston. It may not but, clearly, Red Bull have a lot of pace in hand and I see them on for another one-two finish this weekend."
He doubts the defending champions will be troubled over the course of the season, though, adding: "It's definitely going to be tough for a few races to come – Red Bull are really in a league of their own. So we've just got to focus on ourselves and, once we're on the right track, maybe we find performance quicker than we expect."
Russell had made the rather bold prediction after the race in Bahrain that Red Bull may win all 23 races this year. Hamilton is realistic about his Mercedes team's chances of stopping them, but remains hopeful that Ferrari might be able to have a say.
"They're going to run away with it. They most likely will this year unless Ferrari can stop them – we'll wait and see," he said of Red Bull. "Hopefully, at some point during the year, we'll be able to close the gap. But at that point it will probably be too late in terms of fighting for the championship.
"We need the Red Bulls, Ferraris and maybe now the Astons not to finish the race for us to be winning, at the moment. But that doesn't mean we can't catch them up. None of us at this team have ever shied away from a challenge. We'd much prefer to be at the front, but that's not the way it is."
Regarding the difference in race pace between the Mercedes and Red Bull machines, Hamilton offered a rather bleak estimation: "I think in the race, they weren't pushing so they're a lot quicker even than they seemed. We have them as being a second and a half in the race, per lap, something like that."
