Toto Wolff has revealed that the weight of the W08 is an area of concern as Mercedes plan to bounce back following its Melbourne defeat.

While the main reason for the loss to Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari is thought to be tyres and the subsequent inability to pass Max Verstappen, it is thought that weight also played a part.

Indeed, Germany's Auto Motor Und Sport has claimed that the Mercedes is around 5kg over the minimum limit.

In an ideal world teams will be seeking to be well below this and consequently forced to add ballast - though not of the dreaded 'success' variety - to bring them up to the minimum which has been raised this year to 728kg to compensate for the weight difference between the 2016 tyres and their 2017 counterparts.

"I don't want to go too much into detail but it's an area we can definitely improve," admits Toto Wolff, according to Motorsport.com. "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."

Another team that had expressed issues before Melbourne is Force India, where both drivers, particularly Sergio Perez, were told to shed weight ahead of the season opener.

Rather than over-indulging over the break, the drivers' additional weight is down to 'bulking-up' muscle in preparation for the demands of the new regulations.

Though Williams has revealed no such issues one has to wonder whether the Mercedes power unit gained a little weight over the winter.

Red Bull, which is understood to be 'on the limit' is understood to be putting this down to the fact that Renault has reverted to its 2016-spec MGU-K.