Former Mercedes driver and 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg believes Mercedes now hold such an advantage that they will be ahead of Ferrari on every type of circuit, unless the Scuderia can fix a major issue it has aerodynamically.
Speaking immediately after the Chinese Grand Prix in a post-race debrief on his personal YouTube channel, Rosberg said Ferrari was suffering from a lack of downforce which is costing them time in the corners and they would therefore only be quick on straights.
Their work to fix that at the weekend didn't have the desired effect according to the German and he now believes Mercedes have the upper hand everywhere.
"Mercedes are really big, big favourites at the moment," he said. "They're just looking so strong. Ferrari's just struggling. Ferrari have pitched their car in the wrong place aerodynamically.
"They have way too little drag and just way not enough downforce in the corners. That's where they're losing a lot of time. It's not ideal for the fastest possible lap. They're just in the wrong place with their car.
"They were trying this weekend to put on some more rear wing but they didn't have the bigger rear wing that they needed.
"They need to produce that but also just putting on rear-wing is not an efficient way because it's just a 1:1 'increase downforce, increase drag'.
"That's not really the way to go. The way to go is to take it from other places in the car, like front wings, side-endplates. That's what that really need to focus on now. But that's a lot of work. It's going to take time, it's not quick.
"I put Mercedes ahead at the moment everywhere, even Barcelona. But I really hope Ferrari ramp it up because we want to see some action, some figthing, like we saw in Bahrain."
Rosberg also offered up his opinion on Valtteri Bottas' pace during the race as he was unable to challenge Lewis Hamilton and the Ferrari team orders saga, which he described as "harsh" on Charles Leclerc.
"[Bottas] lacked a bit of race pace which is a common trait for him. He has work to do on that still, to be fast in the race, but we also know Lewis is such an amazing benchmark."
He added: "That was harsh. Ferrari and Leclerc, I mean he has to live with it for now. But that was pretty harsh. They should at least give him a little more time to prove he's faster. They completely messed up his race. Not great how they managed that."
