'European races to bring changes in F1 pecking order,' predicts Alonso

However, in the latter event, Mercedes replaced Aston Martin as the second-best team,"

Unfortunately, the return to China has been cancelled, leaving a four-week gap in the calendar until the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, across 28-30 April.

The teams are expected to debut their first major car upgrade packages in Baku. Introducing new performance-enhancing components will open the door to the competitive order changing much more often as the season wears on.

Double world champion Fernando Alonso commented: "I think the first three races being away from Europe, it's difficult to bring upgrades and things like that. But from now on, maybe we see the level of the teams changing a little bit, race-by-race, depending on who brings an upgrade that is good enough."

McLaren has promised a significant update to its limited MCL60 in Baku, although has played down expectations of an immediate hit for its disappointing start to the season.

Meanwhile, Mercedes has teased promising-looking aerodynamic parts that are currently being tested in the wind tunnel and changed to the suspension set-up to boost mechanical grip.

Alonso indicated that even if his Aston team lost out in the development war, it could already be considered a successful season for the squad after he scored a hat-trick of podiums.

"It's all happy days at the moment. We never expected to be on the podium, maybe even throughout the season, and in three races, we have three. So, everything that comes now is a plus," he said.

"We take every opportunity and we need to learn and we need to grow as a team also maybe now off-track because we are racing against Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari - teams that are used to this kind of pace of development and things like that.

"Maybe we are just in a learning process. So, we take this 2023 in a very humble manner and let's see how it's going."