Audi boss, Mattia Binotto admits that his team's under-performing engine hasn't come as a surprise.

As expected, Mercedes appears to have done the best job in getting a grip of the rules overhaul, its two drivers looking set to battle for the title.

The new engine rules, brought in to encourage new manufacturers, saw Honda reverse its original decision to quit, Red Bull to produce its own power unit, General Motors to go down the same route and Audi, so successful the various other disciplines it has contested, to follow suit.

As was the case with the previous rules overhaul Honda has started on the back foot, Red Bull is still learning, Cadillac is using Ferrari power until its own unit is ready, and Audi has not exactly got off to an auspicious start.

While nobody expected the German manufacturer to come out of the starting blocks battling its main (road car) rival, Audi has struggled more than expected.

Team boss, Mattia Binotto admits that much of this is down to the power unit and the fact Audi didn't entirely appreciate the enormous task it was facing.

"We are aware that if I look at the overall performance and the gap to the best, where the biggest performance to gain is on the power unit itself," he tells the official F1 website, "so most of our gap in performance is in the power unit, which is not a surprise.

"We would have expected it," he adds. "We know how difficult it is to build a brand new power unit so it's not something which surprised us. It's not something which disappoints us. It's a matter of fact.

"We knew that would have been the biggest challenge," he continues. "We knew that it's where there is the most to gain in performance, because I think the gap is significant, mainly on the power unit, but we've got plans to develop it.

"It's part of our journey. We have set an overall objective for 2030, not by chance, because we knew how long it would take. We are focusing on where we are and what's required."

However, the Italian insists the R26's issues are not entirely down to the engine.

"It's not only power," he says. "It's energy efficiency, energy deployment, but as well, it's about driveability of the engine itself. When you come to driveability, it's also with the gear changes, which are very harsh for us at the moment. The car is unstable in braking, unstable in acceleration because of the harshness of the gear change.

"Maybe the ratio arrangements are not right," he adds. "There is so much on driveability, as much as on pure performance. I think if you make the sum of the two, between performance and driveability, it can be up to a second per lap just by then.

"I believe that the car itself, chassis side, we've done a good job," he insists. "Most of the delta is from the power unit. We will make it."

Though the five-week 'break', caused by the cancellation of two races, will hit his team in the pocket, Binotto takes comfort from the fact that Audi will use the time to rethink.

"I think it's really a chance for us because, since the winter testing, we have been focused so much on addressing all the problems we had, making sure that for the following event or race we were prepared and had solved them," says the Italian.

"I think that race preparation has been very time consuming for us. Once you are absorbed completely by race preparation, you can't develop as you wish so I think that April off, which is not an off obviously, will be very important for us to rejoin, refocus on what are the next developments, and make sure that we are not only fixing problems but developing properly."