Lewis Hamilton took responsibility for his shock qualifying exit in Saudi Arabia, referring to his car as "undriveable".
The seven-time world champion will line-up 15th for Sunday's Grand Prix after failing to make it out of Q1 for the first time since Brazil in 2017.
Mercedes' pace deficit when compared to rivals Red Bull and Ferrari, who locked out the front two rows, was clear in last weekend's season opener.
Hamilton knew he had to considerably improve on his final run in Q1 but failed to do so, posting a time that was notably slower than teammate George Russell. The 37-year-old lamented the instability of his Silver Arrow and offered no assurances as to his race pace.
He said: "I don't know how different the cars are set up but the car was undriveable with the set-up I chose. But it's my own fault, I made some set-up changes.
"I don't know if that was everything to do with it, but it was very unstable. I don't what I'm going to be able to do tomorrow, but I'm a long way back."
Asked if he was surprised, Hamilton replied: "Yeah, of course. [The setup] was looking good in P3, I tried to progress in a similar direction and maybe went too far. The car was just undriveable, and so nervous." Russell ended up qualifying in sixth - almost a second off pole sitter Sergio Perez with his teammate Max Verstappen in fourth.
It leaves Mercedes looking for answers after a winter that saw major rule changes that has shaken up the grid. Toto Wolff insists he relishes the challenge but confessed the current pace of the German outfit was "totally unacceptable".
The Austrian said: "I love competition, I always love competition. We had a really strong run of eight years leading the pack, but this time feels a bit like 2013 where we just weren't up to the speed of the Red Bulls and probably also the Ferraris.
"We kept fighting and this is how I feel at the moment. We need to fight. It's certainly totally unacceptable where we are now in performance. We are third on the road, sometimes not even like today. It's just not an option to stay where we are."
"We have many parts of the car that don't work, that we don't understand, they don't perform enough," added Wolff. "And this is not where we all expect the car to be." Perez, who will line-up ahead of the two Ferraris, claimed his final effort was something he would struggle to top. He said: "I can do a 1,000 laps and I don't think I can beat that lap, it was unbelievable."
