Speedcafe understands that the Three-Pointed Star machines will have capacity reduced by two litres, a development which so happens to follow some rapid practice times from Mercedes-AMG drivers around Mount Panorama.

It means that those cars will be unable to stretch beyond 32 laps in a stint.

It would appear, based on BoP documentation, that the measure has been taken because of a view from officials that the Mercedes needed to be brought into alignment with their rivals on fuel range.

Remark 1,14 of the latest BoP update states, “Total Fuel Capacity is for 32 laps max in normal race conditions based on collected fuel consumption data from FP4s and discussions with manufacturers.

“Cars doing more laps will be reported to the Stewards.”

That would suggest that, even if the Mercedes teams find a way to stretch fuel loads beyond 32 laps (or 198.8km), they may well be penalised anyway.

Qualifying starts at 12:40 local time/AEDT/UTC +11, with the bottom 50 percent from Practice 6 heading out in the first part of the session.