Martin Brundle warned not to expect a Mercedes renaissance any time soon after chatting with team staff in Jeddah.
Mercedes wanted so much to come into the 2023 season as a front-runner again after enduring a very difficult campaign last year. But the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this month only served to confirm their worst fears.
They have only the fourth fastest car on the grid and are a long way off pace-setters Red Bull in terms of performance. So now they are abandoning their car concept and developing a different machine for later in the season. It means Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are in for another tough time with a less competitive machine than they would like.
