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Aside from their extreme porpoising and a car that Mercedes aren’t sure is a good one, Andy Shovlin says the team is having to deal with yet another obstacle this season.

And that is the new tyre regulation.

As of this season Formula 1 has scrapped the rule that states that the top ten qualifiers must start the grand prix on the tyres they used in Q2.

Instead all 20 drivers can chose whatever compound they want to use in the first stint of the race.

It is something that all the teams who are used to being inside the top ten are having to manage, and while it is a very simple change, Shovlin says it is causing a bit of a headache for Mercedes.

“The rule now is really very simple,” the trackside engineering director said as per GPFans.net.

“You don’t know what tyres people are going to be on until the blankets are off so there is a bit more of an unknown.

“We can’t do quite the same level of planning when we are looking at the strategy.”

It is not just choosing the compounds that makes a difference but also old versus new tyres.

In Bahrain Charles Leclerc started on brand new set of soft tyres while the two behind him, Carlos Sainz