Mercedes boss Toto Wolff insists three consecutive one-two finishes for the reigning Formula 1 world 🅘champions does not reflect the true picture of the 2019𒈔 season.

Lew♑is Hamilton charged to a convincing second victory of the season by leading home teammate Valtteri Bottas in Shanghai, as Mercedes became the first team since Williams in 1992 to register three straight one-two finishes at the start♐ of a campaign.

But Wolff pointed to Ferrari’s dominant performance in Bahrain - where it wouꦺld have won had late𓂃 engine issues not robbed Charles Leclerc - as a reminder of the potential its chief F1 rival has.

“I think although we have scored thrꦏee one-twos, I’m saying again - and maybe it’s not very popular - but I💮 think this is not what we’re seeing in the picture,” Wolff said.

“The Ferrari is very strong, a🔜nd we expect this fight for pole position and as a consequence race wins to continue.

“It didn’t look good [for us] an🐻d we weren’t where we expected to be in the first testing sessions [in Barce൲lona],” he added.

“Then we c🃏ame back with the new aero package, the race one aero package, which we hoped would have a real impact on thꦇe car’s performance, and it didn’t on the first two days [of the second test].

“On the t🌸hird day, we found the right setup direction, and on the fourth day we were꧃ able to post a time that was encouraging but no more.

“Obv♋iously Melbou🍷rne came as a great surprise when everybody let their pants down that our performance was good enough. Then you get caught out.

“We came to Bahrain and we weren’t fast enough at a layout that is very much a rear-limited track with the most abrasive asphalt on the calendar, and Ferrari was the one tha🥀t should have won the race in terms of pure car performance.”

Wolff said the level of performance achieved by Mercedes in China came “as a surprise” to him, having been convinc𓂃ed Ferrari’s straight-line speed advantage o🍷f around 0.3s would make the Italian squad clear favourites.

“I think we had♒ good race pace on the Friday, but it wasn’t the completely dominant picture🍷,” Wolff explained.

“It was solid, maybe had a tiny edge over Ferrari, but not what we’ve seen here. I thi🥂nk the work we have done for the race has been good.

“The car is solid on the tyres, and esಞpecially in Shanghai, which is a totally different track to Bahrain, we were able to have ༺the right package.

“I believed that their straight line advantage, especially on the opening laps, would be a danger for us, and once DRS was enabled, even more. But we didn’t see ♌them coming anywhere near us.

“I think our exit onto the main straight out of Turn 13 was very good, so we were able to pull a litt🥃le gap there, so they were never close enough. But it came as a surprise.”