Williams’ former chief operations engineer Mark Gillan has tipped Mercedes for victory in Australia with a close battle between Williams and Ferrari for the podium.
Gillan, speaking to James Allen on F1, analysed the short and long runs conducted by each team and came to the conclusion that Mercedes is ahead of its rivals, but behind them its a blurry picture.
“Day four wasn’t so great as they [Mercedes] had some problems, but day three with [Nico] Rosberg was very consistent. They are the team to beat in Melbourne,” he surmised.
“Behind them it’s close between Williams and Ferrari,” he added. “Williams is perhaps the surprise package. The car looks quick in both low fuel and high fuel specification.”
“They look quite evenly matched for race pace.”
Gillan didn’t however have kind words for the Renault-powered cars which he believes will struggle.
“There is nothing there, even in the short runs to get excited about,” he said. “It looks like they have wound the engine back to be able to get some laps on the board.”
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