Today's Team Representatives press conference with Flavio Briatore, Jonathan Wheatley and Laurent Mekies.

Laurent, we'll start with you. Race one done, what were the biggest learnings for Red Bull in Australia? Let's start with that.
Laurent Mekies: Depends how long do you have? Seriously, many, many learnings. Obviously, I think if we want to think what have been the biggest aspects for us, it's probably the power unit, being so new in the adventure. But it's fair to say that the learnings were 360 through the weekend. You have seen through qualifying sessions how much every driver and car were adapting. In the race, how much we were all learning about how to deal with our energy. So, I would say, to answer your question, first the power unit, on our side, in real-life race trim. Second, probably how we all learned to deal with energy management around the lap throughout the race weekend.

Max said yesterday in the press conference that P5 was the maximum he could have got in that race, irrespective of where he'd started the Grand Prix. So, where are Mercedes and Ferrari faster than you at the minute?
LM: At first, to Max's assessment, I think it's what we said after the pre-season testing. We said we felt we are around the fourth team. If anything, it was a touch better in Melbourne. So yeah, the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes is substantial. It's probably half in the straight, half in the corner. There is not one single area that we need to improve. It's a 360 improvement. It's not a surprise. It's going to be a development race. It's going to be a learning race. So, there is not one single area that we pinpoint in terms of gap to competition, but it's going to be a full effort from all departments.

What did we learn this morning in FP1? Do you think the gap will be similar here in Shanghai?
LM: If anything it looked bigger this morning, but it's early days. The Sprint weekends are very, very long, but certainly the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari is large. So, we know we have work to do, and this weekend will be also a big chance to learn.

Quick word on both of the drivers. Max first, can we get your thoughts on him doing the Nürburgring 24 Hour race? Just how much convincing did you need to let him do that?
LM: He doesn't need to convince us, really. It's enough to speak a few minutes with Max and you see his face lighten, his eyes lighten when he talks about racing cars. It doesn't matter what type of cars. It's great. We have seen it last year. He has done it quite a few times in between the races. You would think it's taking energy from him, but in fact he comes back with more energy to the racetrack. He is in love with the sport, and it's a great reminder to all of us that we are all motor sport fans. He's a motor sport fan and he loves spending his free weekends racing.

Tell us about the impression that Isack Hadjar has made on the team so far this year.
LM: He did a near-perfect first weekend, and I'm sure there was enough pressure on him to make that a difficult achievement, but he did a near-perfect race weekend. Friday was very good, very good learnings, very good set-up scan that we could split across the cars. Qualifying, we lost Max very early on, obviously, and at that stage all eyes were on him. He could have been more conservative, he could have been too aggressive, but he just nailed it, put the car in P3, out-qualified both Mercedes and Ferrari, which was probably a touch better than what we would have hoped for where we are now with the car. In the race, he was part of the first few laps dramas, with management and the fights with all the cars around, and until we had the issue with the engine he really did the perfect weekend. So, we just want more of that.

Jonathan, let's come to you now. Can we just throw it back to Melbourne first of all, because Sunday was both good and bad for Audi. What was your overriding emotion after the race?
Jonathan Wheatley: I think overall it was a feeling of pride in what we'd achieved in really the 11 months since I've been with the team. There's always that feeling of yin and yang for a team principal when one of your drivers doesn't get a chance to participate, even in the race. I really felt for Nico. He put so much effort in over the winter. He came back reinvigorated this year and he was fully focused. He's been working hard with the engineers, and just to see his race not even start was very difficult. Then on the other side, to score points in the very first race as the Audi Revolut Formula One Team, extraordinary. Not just a technical achievement, the R26 under Mattia Binotto, Stefan Dreyer and James Key, to bring together this first ever Audi Formula 1 car. Then every single part of our trackside appearance is new: new team clothing, new hospitality, every single bit of pit equipment is new, the garage. What's been achieved in such a short period of time has been nothing short of incredible. On top of that, I have to say the partners that we signed, some of them as early as just a few weeks before the first race. I think overall, pride in what we've achieved, but we're very, very focused on just how far we've got to go.

Let's talk about that journey in terms of how far you've got to go. In terms of performance, how close were you to maximizing what you had in Melbourne?
JW: I don't think I've ever left a race weekend with the engineers telling me we got absolutely everything out of the car. I think our focus in Melbourne was to execute a clean race weekend, focus on ourselves, not get too caught up in the noise, not get too distracted with what other teams were doing. I think it's becoming more and more clear to us, the picture evolving over time, where the areas of performance are that we can add to the car. It won't come as a surprise to anyone, it's a brand new chassis, brand new power unit, and we've got some areas to make up. Especially our focus at the moment is on the powertrain development. That's clearly one of the areas that we've identified in data that is somewhere, as you would understand, that there's some performance to be found.

What about Gabriel Bortoleto now? He commented yesterday in the press conference that he's feeling much more comfortable coming into year two. Just how much change, how much development, have you seen in him coming into this season compared to 12 months ago?
JW: Firstly, I've been encouraged with both drivers over the winter - recharging, coming back fully focused and absolutely embedded with their engineers, looking at every single area where you can get performance out of the team and out of the car. I think with Gabi, again, he showed his work ethic. He's been embedded in Switzerland and Neuburg over the course of the winter. He's either been on the chassis simulator or the PU simulator. He's growing as an individual, he's getting more confident, he's understanding what's important rather than getting caught up in the noise. I'm tremendously encouraged by his progress and also his ability to knit a team around him. Also, he was here cleaning wheels on Wednesday!

Flavio, if we could come to you now. At this early stage in the season there's so much talk about performance and potential. Just what did you make of Alpine's performance at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix?
Flavio Briatore: I know. So I think I'm pretty... we are not happy at all. Our performance was very weak and was a combination of different factors, and we know what is the major problem we have in the car. We try to resolve this as quick as possible. But for the rest, it was the first race and for a long time we have no point in the race in Formula 1. At least we have one point with Pierre. It happened, it's already passed, it's impossible to change the result.

Flavio, you say you're not happy with the performance. What goals have you set Alpine this year?
FB: To finish in front of him [Wheatley], if it is possible! Close to him [Mekies], if it's possible! This is what we're looking for. We're looking to be P7, P8, P6, this range, this range of the competition we have. We have the top four top teams, including Laurent, they are very, very strong, and after that is all the rest. So fighting to be in front of all the rest.

There's lots of speculation at the minute about potential investors in the team, Christian Horner, Toto Wolff, even Mercedes themselves. What's the situation? What's the latest, Flavio, on that?
FB: Every day is a new situation. I don't know what is the latest one, but what I say is that I know it's a negotiation with Mercedes, not with Toto, with Mercedes, and we see. In this moment we have three or four potential buyers. Don't forget, we're talking about the Otro shares, nothing to do with Alpine. It's the share owned by this hedge fund, it's called Otro, American fund. They want to sell the 24 per cent and a few candidates are ready to do the deal.

Are you tempted to buy in?
FB: No, no, no, no. Just looking. I'm just looking what's going on and just watching what's going on. For us, we have no communication with Toto in this moment. So, if somebody buys the shares, we are very happy.

Check out our Friday gallery from Shanghai here.