Sebastian Vettel was left surprised by Mercedes' dominant pace in qualifying on Saturday, the Ferrari driver pinning his hopes on a turnaround on Sunday.
Ferrari arrived in Melbourne as the outright favourite to lead the pecking order at the outset based on its pre-season testing form.
But Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton have topped every session so far at Albert Park, leaving its main rival bewildered by the pace of the Silver Arrows squad.
"I am certainly surprised, I think everybody is, probably even themselves," said the German who concluded qualifying third, 0.704s adrift from Hamilton.
"I think yesterday we didn't have a good day, and today felt better. But in terms of gap and pace it was very similar.
"For sure there is some homework for us to do to understand. I still think we have a great car. We should be better than this, so I am looking forward to tomorrow."
Vettel hinted at a track specific advantage for Mercedes, with Melbourne's slow and medium corners better suited to the German team's W10.
"I don't think the straight line is a problem as we are quite competitive down the straights, we are just losing in the corners," he said.
"There are 16 corners around here and I think it is fairly evenly spread.
"Probably by the looks of it and so far it was more the lower and medium stuff, rather than the high speed, which also speaks for a strong car in general."
Vettel acknowledged that his SF90 didn't feel quite as good in Australia as it did in winter testing, but the German also pointed to distinct circumstances to justify the difference.
"We have probably something like 10-15 degrees more ambient [temperature], a hotter track, and different circuit, so overall different conditions," he added.
"But the car felt really good in testing and probably around here this weekend so far it didn't feel as good yet.
"Yesterday was a difficult day for us, it was tricky. Today felt a bit better, but there is not an awful lot of time to try different things.
"You have to get on with it, sessions come fast, especially in qualifying you can't change much, if anything you get a better understanding of where you are losing out or where it feels uncomfortable.
"For us there is a bit of a margin but certainly the gap is there today and was a surprise, we didn't expect it coming here. But now it is that way and we focus on tomorrow and don't worry about the gap now."
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