Lewis Hamilton has urged Mercedes to immediately address the issues with the W14 cars after a deflating first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain.
After their struggles in 2022, there was frenzied intrigue over how the Silver Arrows would start this campaign, and whether or not Hamilton could challenge for an unprecedented eighth world title. On the evidence of the weekend, that notion seems a distant one with Hamilton labouring to fifth while teammate George Russell was seventh.
It was Red Bull who dominated as world champion Max Verstappen took the chequered flag from partner Sergio Perez. But the performance of the day arguably came from Aston Martin man Fernando Alonso, who seared past his old British rival and Carlos Sainz in the closing laps to finish third.
The next race takes place in Saudi Arabia on the weekend of March 17-19, leaving little time for Mercedes to try and overhaul any problems. But Hamilton warned there is no time to lose if the team are to compete this season.
"The team did a great job with the pit stops, just unfortunately, the car is just not there at the moment, we are lacking downforce and we have just got to work really hard to try and add that ASAP," he said. "Anything that is in the wind tunnel, we need it tomorrow. We need to push massively to close that gap."
However, the 38-year-old did declare himself happy with his own efforts at least, after being asked if fifth was the best he could have hoped for: "Yeah definitely, I gave it absolutely everything," he continued. "I am generally happy with the race, it was much better with the qualifying and I am happy with my performance.
Hamilton crossed the line a full 51 seconds behind Verstappen, with Russell two places further back. And afterwards, the 25-year-old voiced fears that the race was an indication of what's to come for the rest of the year.
"Red Bull have got this championship sewn up," he conceded afterwards. "I don't think anybody is going to be fighting with them this year. I expect them to – or they should – win every single race this season."
Team Principal Toto Wolff vowed the team was working around the clock to address issues: "We are super-critical of ourselves and what we need to achieve. We are looking at everything to get it right with the concept," he said. "Everybody in the engineering team thinks like that and we just need to get our act together."
