Lewis Hamilton took a swipe at his Mercedes team and feels his input was not listened to during the development of the team's W14 car.
The new machine made its competitive debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Mercedes were hoping to fare better after a difficult 2022 campaign. But they could not challenge for the win or even the podium.
Not only that, but it became very clear that the performance gap between themselves and Red Bull is huge. Team boss Toto Wolff declared it was "one of the worst days in racing", while Hamilton admitted his car was "nowhere near" quick enough.
After the race, over team radio, Hamilton had an inspiring message for his team. He said: "Great work over these two weeks. We know we're not where we want to be, but let's keep pushing. We've got some serious work to do to close the gap, but I believe in you all."
But, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Chequered Flag podcast, the Brit was less diplomatic. He explained: "Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car. I've driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn't need.
"And I think it's really about accountability, it's about owning up and saying 'yeah, you know what, we didn't listen to you, it's not where it needs to be and we've got to work'.
"We've got to look into the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points and just huddle up as a team, that's what we do. We're still multi-world champions, you know? It's just they haven't got it right this time, they didn't get it right last year, but that doesn't mean we can't get it right moving forwards."
It took just one qualifying session of the new season before Wolff admitted that the team needs to rethink its car concept. "I don't think that this package is going to be competitive eventually," he declared in Bahrain.
"We gave it our best go last year, also over the winter, and now we all just need to regroup, sit down with the engineers, be totally non-dogmatic, and ask, 'What is the development direction we want to pursue in order to be able to win races?'"
