Mercedes aiming to catch Red Bull with 'plenty of firepower' this season 

Mercedes technical director James Allison is confident that the team has plenty of firepower to catch Red Bull.

In what has been a major shuffle in their senior management, Allison has assumed technical directorship once again. After two years of producing not-so-competitive machinery, Mercedes have decided to bring Allison back in the hope of finding that Midas touch again.

Nevertheless, there's still a lot to be done within the team, but Allison is confident that they can close the gap to Red Bull despite the budget cap restrictions. As quoted by racingnews365.com, Allison said that there's still a lot that can be done to close the gap to Red Bull:

"The flow of parts has already happened; you pretty much have a different car every weekend you take it racing. Sometimes, it is a few more parts, sometimes a few fewer. We have had new things for each of the races, Baku won't be an exception. I would hope we can keep that coming."

He added:

"You are constrained by cost caps and stuff eventually, but we are at the stage of the season where there is still plenty of firepower there to keep putting lap time on the car weekend by weekend."

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Tough to predict key strengths or weaknesses of Mercedes this early in the season - James Alisson

When asked if he could predict what tracks could suit Mercedes, Allison reckons it's too early to reach such conclusions:

"No, not really. It is quite early in the season to be diagnosing what your car is great at and isn't great at because the car is not a fixed thing; it is a platform that develops through the year. If I had to pluck something out the air, I would say we tend to be a little stronger at the front-limited circuits rather than the ones that are heavily rear-limited."

He added:

"So a Bahrain-type track is all about how well a car can look after its rear tyres. Melbourne was a bit more on the front-limited end of the spectrum. Other front-limited tracks, Barcelona is one, Silverstone another. But it feels too early to be predicting that because these are young rules; this is a young car, and there is plenty to give to it."

Mercedes secured a front-row start and a podium in Melbourne and will hope to build on that at the Azerbaijan GP this weekend.