Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg have dominated in Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain and China, with Hamilton winning the last three in succession following Rosberg's success in Melbourne.

But that - and the prospect of continued successes - is not enough for Mercedes, whose motorsport boss Toto Wolff has called for a much greater effort in a bid to press home their advantage.

As the Formula One circus prepares to race in Europe for the first time this year, every team will arrive at the Circuit de Catalunya with upgraded cars carrying revised parts - thus turning the start of the "European season" into a new beginning.

"We know our rivals are going to be relentless in their effort to close the gap on us, so our aim is to increase the advantage we enjoyed at the last race in China," said Wolff.

"As a team, it is up to us to rise to the challenge - to take that relentless mentality to an even greater extent than those around us. If we are to build a sustained level of success in this sport, any small advantage must be seen as a platform upon which to build a bigger advantage."

Having seen how Red Bull's consummate superiority has been overturned, Wolff is fully aware of the frailty of any level of advantage in Formula One.

He said he has long believed that Mercedes' advantage at the front of the field was not as great as some had suggested and warned that the German manufacturer's dominance could come to a swift end unless it kept pushing.

"I believe that this is an exceptional run and you cannot take it for granted," he said.

"In a couple of years, we will be looking back and saying that was really great - four races in a row and three doubles in a row.

"But we have to keep our feet on the ground, and concentrate on developing the car further. We saw in China that our rivals were strong in some stints and we have to analyse that.

"We don't want to be caught on the back foot."

AFP