Lewis Hamilton cut a frustrated figure as he gave a glum outlook on the rest of the British Grand Prix weekend after Friday practice.
The timesheets after the first two sessions of the weekend were ominous. Max Verstappen is the favourite for victory on Sunday and went fastest on both outings on Friday.
While things went off without a hitch for Red Bull, the same could not be said for their Mercedes rivals. Despite having a new front wing designed to suit Hamilton's driving style, he could not find the right car setup.
The seven-time world champion was outside the top 10 in both sessions. And team-mate George Russell didn't fare any better, going 14th fastest in the early afternoon session before barely improving to 12th later in the day.
Both of them were full of complaints over the radio while in the cars. Hamilton spoke about the bouncing he was suffering out on track, while his fellow Brit also had plenty to say on the issue.
And, after the day's running, neither of them offered much optimism to fans hoping for a home hero to step forward this weekend. "We are battling the same thing – it's a tough car to drive," Hamilton told reporters.
"No matter what we do with the setup it continues to be a tough car to drive. On a single lap, I did not feel an improvement between the different tyres so that shows something is wrong and we are missing something."
Russell, meanwhile, seemed nonplussed about the issues he had experienced. He said: "It was definitely not our finest Friday, We need to get to the bottom of it. In second practice, we were nowhere so we need to try and understand that."
Naturally, given how smoothly things went for Verstappen, the defending champion was much more relaxed as he faced the media. "I think it was quite a good day for us," he said.
"Overall, the performance has been pretty strong in both sessions. We could complete our programmes – long runs are good as well. So, pretty positive... Overall, it's been a strong day again."
