Ross Brawn knows Mercedes will need to come up with something special if they are to break the stranglehold of the big three.
Red Bull will no doubt once again be the team to beat this season after winning back-to-back doubles while the likes of McLaren and Ferrari will also be there or thereabouts when it comes to challenging for top honours.
Mercedes, who launched their 2012 challenger on Tuesday, have for the past two seasons finished a distant fourth in the Constructors' Championship and team principal Brawn says they have to "break the mould" this campaign.
"I think we can see that naturally Red Bull are not going to deteriorate overnight so they will have a very strong car I'm sure," he is quoted as saying by Autosport.
"McLaren will be good, Ferrari perhaps having a challenging time at the moment but I'm sure they will get their car together because they are a very strong and experienced team.
"I think it will be a similar group quite frankly. We have to break the mould and move up.
"I'm not sure who we can displace but I think we are all battling to match Red Bull, who have demonstrated over the last few years how strong they are."
Michael Schumacher was pretty upbeat about the W03 after the first day of the pre-season test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday. The German posted a 1:24.150, the sixth fastest time, and completed 51 laps.
Brawn, though, says it is still early days.
"I think it's too early to judge, but we are reasonably happy, as much as you can be on the first day, trying to get your references," Brawn said.
"The car seems to behave sensibly, nothing odd. It's correlating with what we expected, and now we have to learn about the car and drivers have to learn how to use it.
"We had a small hydraulic problem which spoiled the running, which was a shame, so we're just trying to understand that. Sure we will get that fixed for tomorrow. Reasonably happy with the first day, taking that into account."
