Toto Wolff has played down suggestions Mercedes is leading the field after practice for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Mercedes enters Melbourne with the weight of expectations on its shoulders, as rivals piled on pressure over its potential pace.
While George Russell and Kimi Antonelli featured at the top of the timesheets, the duo failed to finish fastest in either Friday practice session.
However, what became clear was the long-run pace of the W17, particularly in the hands of Russell during FP1.
But despite the positive start to the weekend, Wolff maintains there are still issues with the W17 that need to be addressed.
“Yeah, they can be overcome, because we’ve seen FP1 today was much more challenging than the Bahrain tests, for example,” he said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“So it’s not inherent problems that we have in the hardware; some of the software is just teething problems.
“Now, having said that, I’ve always stated that I think that Red Bull and Ferrari are very fast, and people try to continue to talk us up, and that’s flattering.
“But I’m not sure it’s 100 per cent the reality, and certainly not what we have seen in FP1.”
Pace of W17 “alright”
Toto Wolff confirmed that while the car has teething issues, it is not at the level of the so far, disastrous Aston Martin Honda project.
“We are certainly not in the magnitude of problems that Adrian [Newey] has,” he said, referring to the Aston Martin team boss sitting alongside in the press conference.
“But it was a difficult burst today, also for us, but not unexpected, I guess, when you start with new regulations.
“We weren’t in such a good place on the chassis side, power unit side, but all things that are surmountable, quite some interesting, exciting challenges to overcome for FP2 and the rest of the weekend.
“But I would say we are where we are, and that’s going to be alright.”
Wolff also confirmed he is not overly confident heading onto the new season, once again playing down the pace of the W17.
“In 15 years or so, I have never been confident,” he said.
“And, even if we started the season magnificently, I’ve never been confident enough to say that we are going to be fast, or we’re on a podium at the end of the race weekend, and that is no different this year.
“I’m not going to say that because, simply, we don’t know. We had a challenging FP1, but not out of the ordinary.
“So we’ve just got to put the work in step-by-step, do it calmly, and then hopefully be fast enough to fight for a podium or win on Sunday. But it’s not a given.”
“The reliability is always an issue, particularly with new cars and new power units. They say, ‘in order to finish first, first you have to finish’,” he said.
“I guess that’s going to be the motto for this first couple of Grands Prix, to say where our limitations, where our reliability worries are on either component or any component in the car.
“So no, [I’m] not particularly worried about one reliability issue related to the engine, but it’s more the overall car concept.”
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