Sure... they had a poor weekend in Adelaide, but the cars were practically straight out of the box, with hardly any test klms on them. $$$ don't seem to be an issue, so I think Betty will throw everything at it.
Now I don't think for one moment
, that the powers that be, would give them any advantage. However, it won't be a good look, if the Mercedes badged cars fail to perform before the end of the year. V8SC's have been crowing long and hard about the two new additions to the grid this year, in Nissan and Mercedes (sorry, Erebus
), so one way or another, expect to see some miraculous improvements by about mid season. I'm sure they wouldn't want to give MB Aust any ammunition to have them removed.