Lewis Hamilton’s blunt verdict on Mercedes’ current Formula 1 form is that wins feel “a long, long way away” and that its car needs “more power and more grip”.
Hamilton was a shock elimination from the first part of qualifying at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and only scored a solitary point in the race after recovering to 10th.
It followed a morale-boosting podium in the season opener in Bahrain, although that result flattered Mercedes as Hamilton gained two places late on when both Red Bulls retired.
Mercedes has battled severe porpoising with its W13 for weeks and cannot unlock the performance it is adamant the car has, because it has to run a compromised set-up to control excessive bouncing at high speed.
Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton said after the Saudi Arabia race: “Right now, we’re not fighting for the top step. We’re so far off the guys ahead. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Asked how far that feels, he replied: “It feels like a long, long way away.”
Hamilton’s glum take that “we need more grip and we need more power” indicated he does not share the view of his team-mate George Russell, who reckons solving the porpoising problem will cure “99%” of the team’s ills.
Instead, Hamilton said: “We’re still really down on speed on the speed trace. That’s not just one fix, it’s several things.
“I don’t know how much drag we have compared to the others but it feels like a lot.”
Mercedes admitted it did not have an optimum low-drag set-up for the high-speed Jeddah circuit which will have complicated matters.
But if the Bahrain Grand Prix confirmed the team was not downplaying its testing troubles, Saudi Arabia underlined how far off it really is.
Russell qualified sixth, nine tenths of a second off the pace and behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.
In the race he was a distant fifth, half a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen over 30 laps of green flag racing following a safety car in the first half of the grand prix.
“We have a better handle on the race pace than quali,” said Russell.
“But the inherent issues are still there, high or low fuel, and that’s compromising us.
“Looking at the result we finished 30 seconds behind, 30 laps after a safety car, that’s probably a second a lap.
“That’s how far we were behind in qualifying too.”
Russell also provided a fascinating insight into how complicated this issue is for Mercedes to understand, which is why he expects no change in the team’s form for the Australian Grand Prix in two weeks.
“There’s so many factors at play when we’re balancing it, sometimes we change the set-up, we think it will improve but actually makes it slightly worse,” he said.
“It’s seemingly a little bit inconsistent, in-between the mechanical stiffness of the car, then the stiffness of the floors, the design of the floor, tyre pressures – it’s so many factors at play that contribute to making it better or worse.
“Engine mode – the faster you go, the worse it gets. It makes it harder for qualifying, we turn the engines up to maximum power, go quicker down the straight, causes more downforce, causes more porpoising.
“We almost need to pre-empt this issue and also in the race, when you have DRS closed you have more downforce than you do with DRS open and that’s another factor that we need to consider.
“We’re still learning and that’s why we’re far from optimal. If we solve the porpoising that would cure 99% of our issues.”
Team boss Toto Wolff has overseen an unbroken run of championship successes since the V6 turbo-hybrid engine era began in 2014.
He said Mercedes cannot fully assess an accurate deficit to Red Bull and Ferrari because the car’s current state means it has “weaknesses everywhere”.
That means Mercedes is currently nowhere near joining the intriguing fight between the top two teams that has emerged over the first two events.
“For the last eight years we were right in the middle of those fun games at the front,” said Wolff.
“Talking as a Formula 1 stakeholder and benefitting from a great show, that is really spectacular.
“But on the other side it’s extremely painful to not be part of those fun and games and by quite a chunk of laptime.
“We are not going to rest until we are back in the mix. But it’s no fun at all, the exercise in humility.
“It’s going to make us stronger. But it’s not fun right now.”
