F1 2019 one-two streaks "flatters" Mercedes team - Toto Wolff

"It's still the same protagonists, but the first four races, the one-twos, flatters us."

The closest any other F1 manufacturer came to scoring a quartet of one-two finishes at the start of a season was in 1952.

Ferraris finished first and second in the first four races contested by that year's F1 championship entrants, although the cars were built to Formula 2 regulations.

But second place in the first of those one-twos in the Swiss Grand Prix was achieved not by a works car but by Fischer's Ecurie Espadon entered Ferrari.

That run also excludes the Indianapolis 500, which counted towards the world championship but was not contested by F1 teams beyond a sole Ferrari entered for Alberto Ascari.

In Baku, Mercedes had identified Ferrari as a clear favourite following Charles Leclerc's control of practice, but Wolff insisted his team was not "talking ourselves down".

"We see a strong Ferrari on Friday and Saturday, and I still believe that Charles was probably the fastest man on track, but like in Bahrain it didn't come together," he said.

"You can say now 'Stop saying these things, it's the fourth one-two in a row'.

"But it is still very much our mindset, we still believe that there are so many things which we need to understand better and improve.

"What we did in the first races was actually put all things together.

"The team didn't do any mistakes, the strategy calls were right, the drivers didn't put a foot wrong.

"That made us win the first four races.

"When you look at the other side, they had more problems."