Ferrari set headline-grabbing times as Merc racked up the miles
Saturday 5 March 2016 12:13, UK
Nico Rosberg says Mercedes head to the season-opening Australian GP not knowing if they are behind Ferrari on pace.
The Scuderia dominated the fastest lap charts over the eight days of testing with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen both using the ultrasoft and supersoft Pirelli tyres.
By contrast Mercedes conducted nearly all of their running on the medium tyres, with just a handful of laps on the yellow-marked soft tyre.
"It is a compromise, you don't really want to show to everyone else how fast you are. We did practice lower fuel with some softer tyres so we did get some practice in," said Rosberg.
"Ferrari have been very quick. All the teams have their strategists so we know more less what fuel the other teams are running and we know our fuel so we know more or less where we are compared to Ferrari.
"We know it is close, but we are not sure if we are ahead or behind."
While Ferrari showed flashes of pace, Mercedes racked up the laps with just one on-track stoppage in 3742 miles of running - over 1000 more miles than the Italian team.
"It's gone really well. What is most important is the speed which we are not 100 per cent sure of. We know that Ferrari are very close so it could go either way," added Rosberg.
"Apart from that everything has gone really well, we are definitely ready for Melbourne."
Rosberg's Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was also delighted with how testing had gone.
"It's been an incredible two weeks for the team. They have done an amazing job. We've done more mileage than ever before - which has been tiring!," the world champion told Sky Sports News HQ.
"I'm glad l broke it. It's better to break it now than in Melbourne. I pushed the car here and there but Australia is when l will really get to open it up."
The first race of the 2016 F1 season, the Australian GP, is exclusively live on Sky Sports F1. The race in Melbourne starts at 5am on Sunday March 20.
