Mercedes claims the ability to optimise tyre performance is currently the biggest factor determining the relative pace of the top three teams.

Over the first three races, we have seen the German manufacturer and Ferrari lead the way with Red Bull not far behind though over the past two weekends, in very different conditions it was the Scuderia that emerged as the team to beat.

Safety Car's in Australia and China also led to distorted results and has meant that for the first time in the hybrid era, Mercedes has not won in three races and chief strategist James Vowles explained why it was so complicated.

"I think the tyres this year are having an impact," he said in a video. "You’ve got three teams – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull – that all, depending on what tyre it is, and what track it is, are able to have different levels of performance to each other.

"And what that’s creating is different cars with different levels of performance depending on what the track temperature is, what the conditions are, and what tyre they have fitted to the car."

What is also frustrating Mercedes is how there are occasions when everything comes together and the true performance is shown.

“In Melbourne, we were able to get the car working on the tyres," he said. "In Q3 we set a time that was extremely fast with Lewis.

"If we go forward to Bahrain, the medium tyre worked very well on our car, and the degradation on the supersoft looked good, as well.

"So there are little vignettes of information where we’ve been able to get it to work."

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Another key factor, which is kept quieter but is also considered crucial, is the amount of oil burning in the engine with Mercedes said to be playing it safer than Ferrari which is why straight line speed is very close.

Both teams are still much more aggressive than Renault and Honda with this trick though and could explain a lot of the difference in the relative engine performance.

The performance of Valtteri Bottas was the most positive takeaway for Mercedes from the Chinese GP, according to motorsport boss Toto Wolff.

As teammate Lewis Hamilton languished, the Finn was in pretty unfortunate not to right the wrong of his near-miss in Bahrain a week prior as he capitalised on Ferrari's error during the pit-stop phase to leapfrog Sebastian Vettel into the lead.

A bold move on Kimi Raikkonen consolidated his lead and he would keep the German at bay before the race turned on its head.

“That was awesome. No mistakes, [just] unlucky with the Safety Car," Wolff told Formula1.com, with a decision by Red Bull to pit both cars for new tyres putting Bottas at a disadvantage.

Even when Daniel Ricciardo came to overtake the Mercedes driver for the win though: "If Valtteri hadn’t opened the door last minute, Ricciardo would have taken him out. So Valtteri’s the only one who was without fault," he argued.

Nevertheless, the overall performance, lagging behind Ferrari by a considerable margin in qualifying and then Hamilton's absent race which saw him lucky to finish P4, left a bitter taste in the Mercedes boss' mouth.

"We just need to stick our heads together," he claimed. "Stay calm, get the head down and come up with some solutions. Huge confidence in the team, they’ve proved that in the past.

“In F1 there is never a quick fix,” Wolff added. "We lacked pace. It’s just all around not the level that we all expect and hope.

"The whole weekend was not good for all of us - the only thing that I see positive was Valtteri’s race," he concluded.

Sunday's defeat also marked the first time in the hybrid era that Mercedes has gone three races without a victory.

Max Verstappen claims he has put the events of last Sunday's Chinese GP behind him as the fallout from the race continues.

The Dutchman has been at the receiving end of tough criticism from pundits and Lewis Hamilton in recent weeks in the wake of two high-profile incidents, the first with the Briton in Bahrain and then with Sebastian Vettel in Shanghai.

Talking to Dutch media though, Verstappen insists it would not be good for him to keep thinking about what has happened and instead focus on the upcoming races.

"Of course it was not my best race. Of course I am not happy with how it went in China," he was quoted by PlanetF1, "but you should not allow it to linger for too long, you have to get on with it.

"It's not the end of the world. I had a poor race and I will learn from it."

The 20-year did reveal conversations with his father Jos and Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko in response to the recent incidents, adding: "These are people who know about it and understand how it works."

Interestingly, Vettel's response to Verstappen after what happened in China was much calmer than perhaps expected, with an immediate conversation between the two after the race seemingly the reason.

However, commenting on the situation, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner does see a comparison between Max and the German when he was at the same point in his career.

"Yes, he's made some mistakes," the Briton said via Autosport. "I remember when we had Sebastian at a similar stage in his career, it wasn't uncommon that he also made some mistakes.

"I think he'd [Max] have learned a lot. He will put that to good use in the future, in the coming races.

"His talent is extremely obvious, his bravery and racing instinct is not in doubt. Obviously he was too impatient, and he will for sure learn from that, I've got absolutely no doubt."

Formula 1's managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn has criticised the performance gap between the top three teams and the midfield as "far too big".

His comments come as the sport's bosses, of which the Briton is one, are looking to find agreement on regulation changes for 2021 which will make for a more competitive grid while maintaining the independent nature of each team's operation.

One such way is through limits on spending, which Williams deputy boss Claire Williams pleaded for earlier this week, but Brawn's focus was more on the lack of teams battling for the lead positions.

"In less than two weeks, we'll be racing in Baku which last year saw the only podium appearance of a driver from outside the top three teams," he explained and was quoted by F1i.com.

"Could the return to this very different street circuit throw up a result outside of the top three teams? On current form, it looks highly unlikely."

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Usually, it is unpredictable races such as Azerbaijan, which saw Lance Stroll just beaten by Valtteri Bottas over the line but still finish third 12 months ago, that allow the smaller teams to shine but as Brawn pointed out.

"On Lap 16 [in China], prior to the run of pit stops the gap from leader [Sebastian] Vettel to seventh-placed Kevin Magnussen was over 35 seconds. The Dane was already trailing Ricciardo, the next man in front, by 20 seconds.

"The Safety Car mixed things up, but not enough to see a driver from the second group join the fight for podium places."

Nico Rosberg believes Lewis Hamilton's rivals need to exploit his current lack of confidence as it won't last long.

The defending world champion described himself as in Toto Wolff also noted during the Chinese GP weekend as he struggled to finish fourth, only thanks to Max Verstappen's penalty, and has already downplayed his championship chances.

It is an attitude eerily similar to that Hamilton was in during 2016 when Rosberg took advantage to claim his only world title before retiring and now he thinks Ferrari and Red Bull must do the same.

"When it doesn't go perfectly, he starts to lose that edge a little bit and a touch of motivation and then just struggles for a while," the German said in a video on his personal YouTube channel.

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff also noted his driver's demeanour with Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle posing whether Daniel Ricciardo might even replace the Briton for 2019 after his victory in Shanghai.

Rosberg, who is now doing media work as a pundit, admits his former adversary won't be down for long, though.

"You have to maximise those races because Lewis always comes back," he claimed. "When he comes back, he comes back so damn strong that he's almost unbeatable.

"Let's see when that happens," Nico concluded.

Fernando Alonso admits he finds the questions put to him about success at former or rivals teams "funny".

The Spaniard made the comments as his last employers Ferrari enjoy their most competitive period for some time and Toro Rosso, who took Honda engines from McLaren for 2018, achieved a fourth-place finish in Bahrain almost two weeks ago.

However, the double world champion appears increasingly annoyed that he should be consistently asked if their results bother him.

"I've been answering about Ferrari in 2015 and 2016," he told reporters in China. "After I left Ferrari, every win, every podium they were achieving, you asked me about if I regretted when I left Ferrari.

"After four years Mercedes keep winning and they have four championships and now you are not asking me about Ferrari, you've changed for Toro Rosso.

"I don't care so much about other teams. It's just funny how people get excited about the ex-teams when they are OK."

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Changing tack, Alonso also hopes the impact of seeing a Renault-powered Red Bull storm to victory last weekend in Shanghai will push McLaren forward as they look to challenge at the front.

"It showed us the potential of the power unit and it gives us good motivation that with this power unit we will be able to fight if we do a good job on the chassis side," the 36-year-old said.

"We know that we have to improve, no doubts. We can't hide that, but at the same time we are doing our job on Sundays and scoring as many points as possible for the team," he added.

Planned upgrades Renault has for their engine during the first half of this season could offer a performance boost greater than the current gap to their rivals, according to managing director Cyril Abiteboul.

The French manufacturer started 2018 with the focus purely on reliability after a number of failures towards the end of last year and a reduction in the number of parts permitted across the entire season.

Battery and turbo failures for Daniel Ricciardo in Bahrain and China have proved issues still remain, however, now Renault is ready to turn up the power, starting from next month's Spanish Grand Prix.

"We have more stuff coming in terms of engine power from race five onwards," Abiteboul explained to Autosport. "There are a couple of improvements in the way we are operating the engine and that’s more in qualifying.

"There will be more coming, but obviously the next proper improvement will be with hardware upgrade [but] that’s not going to be before we introduce power unit number two, which I hope will be as late as possible."

That "late as possible" will likely be the Canadian Grand Prix in June, with the straights of Montreal making it one of the most stressful on engines and will lead on into the bulk of the European races.

As for just how much performance gain the improvements might bring, estimates suggest it could be around half a second per lap, which as Abiteboul pointed out...

"It is more than the gap we have now, in my opinion, from the top teams, certainly in the race at least," he said.

"We are talking about a substantial amount of in-season development."

Daniel Ricciardo insists his future is still far from decided despite claiming victory in the Chinese GP this past weekend.

In the final year of his contract with Red Bull, the Australian has been linked with both Ferrari and Mercedes for 2019 with his stock only rising after Sunday's performance in Shanghai.

However, though his current employers out-smarted their rivals on strategy and team boss Christian Horner maintains Red Bull is the best place for Ricciardo to be, the man himself is not going to make a rash call.

"I want to be with the best car. I think the weekend proved if I got the opportunity I can pull it off," the 28-year-old said.

"If we can win a few more now with Red Bull, that looks very attractive. If not, there's probably other options. Obviously, the win helps but if we were finishing sixth every race this year, then that's not the most attractive option to me."

Ricciardo also refused to be drawn into whether his victory means the Milton Keynes-based outfit will be in the championship fight this season, although...

"If we come out and win again in two weeks in Baku then I'll probably say yes," he added.

For all the talk of potentially replacing either of the two Finns or even Lewis Hamilton, as suggested earlier this week, the six-time F1 winner admits no contact has yet been made.

"I kind of feel like if they want me to race for them they should contact me, but they haven't," Ricciardo said.

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The man from Perth is also not wanting to set to sights too far into the future, something which may favour Red Bull.

"I don't want to sign anything too long because I don't know where the sport's going," he claimed, referring to the 2021 regulation changes.

"I feel like life is happening pretty fast. Each year something might change so I don't want to tie myself down for four more years and then I'm like, ‘I don't want to do this anymore'.

"Ideally I'd sign a two-year contract. I think two years I can definitely be comfortable with and then see it from there."

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has revealed one possible solution that could be considered to try and prevent the recent spate of pit-stop incidents.

In Australia, both Haas cars left the pits with loose wheels during the race, as did Stoffel Vandoorne in practice last weekend in Shanghai. But it was the broken leg suffered by Ferrari mechanic Francesco Cigorini in Bahrain after being run over by Kimi Raikkonen which caused the most concern.

Formula 1's governing body has said an investigation will be conducted with solutions put forward to teams, but a dual-sensor system used by some which monitor both the torque in the wheelguns and the potential cross-threading is attracting interest.

"So, you’re using two sensors to tell the operator it’s actually done up, he presses a button, both jacks drop and the car goes," Whiting said putting the concept in simpler terms.

"I think we can introduce a few things to improve, to decrease the likelihood of mistakes," he added to Motorsport.com, speaking more broadly.

"I think we have learned something. We need to again analyse things to ensure that what we do, we do it precisely to make sure everyone is able to follow that."

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The most extreme solution would be to completely standardise the pit-stop procedure for every team, but the veteran FIA official didn't see that as necessary.

"We need to make sure that among other things there is no possibility for the guy to give the OK until those two conditions have been met," he claimed

Though Max Verstappen has been quick to play down the criticism of others about his driving, one man who may have a better chance is his father and former Formula 1 driver Jos.

In recent days, the Dutchman has come under fire after two notable incidents against two high-profile names, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, in Bahrain and China, both times costing him the opportunity at strong results.

In Shanghai on Sunday, a potential podium was thrown away after running into the side of the Ferrari driver and while responses from Niki Lauda among others fell on largely deaf ears, Verstappen Sr. has now had his say.

"That wasn’t possible," he told Ziggo Sport when asked about the pass on Vettel. "It was an error of judgment. In some circumstances, Max just has to think more."

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Despite that, Jos doesn't see why his 20-year-old prodigal son should stop being aggressive.

"I don’t want him to change his driving style. He passed two people at the start. He did that perfectly. That’s what we all want to see," he claimed.

"But we don’t want to see these kinds of actions. He needs to have it under control. He needs to think."