That is the big unknown, when/if Mercedes tames the bouncing, how fast is their car actually?

I dont think Mercedes is as far behind on engine as it appears.  The belief/hope is that they know the bouncing is more pronounced at high speed so why waste it, so they were using engine maps to utilize the power in different parts of the track and this therefore reduces trap speed which leads some to think they are down on power when that is not the case when sorted.  Mercedes cars just have varying issues at the moment.  In the first race weekend, Aston was up there in the mix with Ferrari powered cars on trap speeds but were slow every where else.

Im sure Ferrari and RedBull want to close the door as fast as possible and keep this year a two horse race, but after two weekends Mercedes is second in Constructor Points and George is only 3 pts behind Max.