LEWIS HAMILTON has been told Mercedes are on the up, but remain some way short of Red Bull. And Mercedes technical director James Allison believes there is reason to be optimistic about the performance, with the team now “quietly” believing they are the second best car in the field. Broadly yes, because the performance level in Australia was not markedly different to that in the other two tracks so far this year. “Different yes to Red Bull, but not a completely different animal compared to the rest of the field. “But if you look at the relative pace of our car to the Ferrari, our car to the Aston Martin, it’s been close-ish all year.

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