Sebastian Vettel says the difference in tyre choices between Ferrari and Mercedes will be much less pronounced by Sunday.
As part of new regulations which see teams given more freedom to choose from three tyre compounds for each race, selections have to be made 13 weeks in advance of each flyaway grand prix. For Bahrain, Ferrari has opted to select three sets of mediums and only four sets of soft tyres, while each Mercedes driver has just one set of mediums and six sets of softs.
With the medium tyre proving to be the best race tyre during the Australian Grand Prix, there has been heightened focus on the different selections but Vettel says the final race allocations are unlikely to differ greatly.
"We will see, on paper it looks more than it is because by the time you get to Sunday you are left with a lot less tyres," Vettel said. "We are confident with the choice we have made and we know our thinking behind it. I don’t know what the others were thinking, but I think we will find out."
Teams have to give back a number of tyres during a race weekend. As a result of reaching Q3 in Australia, Mercedes and Ferrari each entered the race in Melbourne with six sets of tyres left for each driver.
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