Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the mistakes made during the season-opening race in Australia will serve as a learning experience for the future.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel beat fellow four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to the race victory in Melbourne after a glitch in the Mercedes software, this failed to provide the correct information for Hamilton to drive at the correct speed to maintain the lead during the virtual safety car period.
The Austrian is also fully aware of the threat from their rivals and understands his team must prevent any further mistakes to get the best results possible.
"We suspected that the new season would be closely fought and the first race confirmed those suspicions," said Wolff. "We made mistakes and did not perform to our maximum – and it reminded us that this is the toughest racing series in the world, where every error is punished.
"It hurt to leave all those points on the table, especially because we know we had the pace to win in Australia.
"Back at base, we did what we always do after a tough weekend. We made sure that we understand what went wrong and put a process in place to make sure that we don't see a similar issue in the future. These painful moments are the real learning experiences. Mistakes become training."
With the Formula 1 circus moving to Bahrain, the 46-year old is confident about Mercedes chances of being competitive around the Sakhir circuit, however, Wolff is very conscious of the straight line speed Ferrari showed around Albert Park and is once again expecting a tough challenge from the Scuderia.
"We expect Bahrain to be another challenging weekend, although the challenges will be of a completely different nature," added the Austrian.
"The race in the desert is tricky because the conditions change drastically between sessions, FP1 and FP3 take place in the heat of the day whereas Qualifying and the race itself take place after sunset so it's much cooler. That makes it extremely difficult to find the right set-up with the car.
"Bahrain is also a power-sensitive race with the long straights. We saw in Melbourne that the Ferraris in particular, were very quick, so I expect it to be a close battle.
"We've seen some great racing in Bahrain in recent years, particularly between our drivers back in 2014, so I think we can look forward to an exciting and competitive weekend."
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