Ross Brawn

Mercedes went into Sunday's season-opener full of confidence after a solid qualifying session in which Michael Schumacher claimed fourth place and Nico Rosberg P7.

However, on race day things did not go according to plan.

Schumacher retired with a gearbox problem when running in third place while Rosberg was booted out of the points on the final lap when he clashed with Sergio Perez.

Mercedes therefore left Australia without a single point, however, of more concern to their team boss was the rate of degradation they suffered with their Pirelli tires.

"After a very encouraging weekend it was not a good result for us," said Brawn.

"Despite excellent starts, both Michael and Nico had difficulties from the start of the race with their tires.

"With the development of the circuit and track temperatures, we fell out of the working window and struggled with degradation.

"However, we remain positive as both here and over the winter tests we have demonstrated we have a fundamentally quick car and we have a lot to build on.

"So we need to look at what happened, unravel the problem and work out where we need to improve."