Nico Rosberg says Mercedes cannot head to the next round of the Formula 1 championship confident of victory, despite having won every race this season bar the Spanish Grand Prix, where they qualified 1-2 but crashed out on the first lap, allowing Max Verstappen to claim the win.
Last year the Mercedes team qualified on the third row as Red Bull and Ferrari fought it out for victory, with Sebastian Vettel eventually winning that battle, whilst the Mercedes duo of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth and 18th respectively as the latter his reliability problems.
Although Mercedes have made gains in understanding why they couldn't get their tyres to work in the hot temperatures, Rosberg is still wary about the challenge their rivals pose.
"We can't go there with too much confidence because we were miles off last year," he said.
"In qualifying it was 1.8 seconds I think, which is huge. It was our most difficult race of the last two years. So it's going to be a very, very challenging weekend for us.
"We think we've made progress, but 1.8 seconds, that's not going to be easy [to make up]."
Meanwhile Hamilton believes the race could provide the chance for one of the Mercedes drivers to open up a lead in the standings as at present they're split by just two points following the German's back-to-back wins in Belgium and Italy.
"Last year was difficult, and we're hoping this year is not going to be the same," added Hamilton. "If Ferrari are closer and more competitive then that's not such a bad thing.
"The possibilities are there for space between us, and Nico would say the same thing, but we want to finish every race with a team one-two so we're hoping for a good weekend."
