Pre-season testing had suggested that the Italian marque was ahead of the rest of the pack, but it was Mercedes that prevailed in the opening qualifying of the season - with poleman Lewis Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas split by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

“We knew that in Barcelona they were extremely strong, and we knew also that there were areas in which we needed to improve," Wolff said after qualifying in Melbourne.

“I think today is the first time where you can make a proper assessment in terms of where we are with the car, and you can see that it is very close between Ferrari and ourselves.

"It's going to be a hell of a ride over the next 20 races.”

Wolff stressed how hard the team had worked since testing concluded, comparing the situation with the soul-searching that followed the disappointing performance in the 2015 Singapore GP.

“Clearly the two weeks after the second Barcelona test have been extremely busy in various areas in the factory and I'm really proud, because the tests didn't go as expected. And it wasn't one thing but it was multiple causes which we identified we needed to improve.

“It was a little bit like a situation we had at Singapore two years ago, and we analysed the areas of concern. And when we put the car on the track on the Friday morning in Melbourne we sorted most of them - and you see the result today.”

He confirmed, however, that the weight of the car was an area where Mercedes was still looking to improve - with the W08 suggested to be around 5kg too heavy.

"I don't want to go too much into detail but it's an area we can definitely improve with new regulations and the size of the cars you need to balance out all the time between performance parts and the weight and that's an ongoing exercise which we are doing.

Remaining out front was "not a given"

Wolff said that the fact that the team has maintained its form despite the change of regulations was a particular source of satisfaction.

“If I'm right, or if we're right, there was no team that was able to maintain that level of performance through such a major regulation change, and that was a factor of motivation for us.

"As much as we've been in this situation in past years that we have been on pole, I think it was a really good achievement that we've been able to keep ourselves competitive and the team to beat out there, and that was not a given.

“As you know, we weren't keen on these regulations because we believed there could be an impact on the racing side, which we haven't seen yet.

"But it is what it is and, when the decision was taken last year, we went into competition mode and tried to have the best possible chassis, and here we are.”