Mercedes have been told to swallow their pride and follow the path laid out by Red Bull when it comes to the redesign of their car.
The Silver Arrows stuck with their car concept despite a tough 2022 season, adamant that they would be able to extract the performance that they need out of it eventually. But it took just one qualifying session of the new campaign for Toto Wolff to concede defeat.
Even before the race in Bahrain, which saw Lewis Hamilton finish fifth with George Russell two places further back, the Austrian had admitted that a rethink was required. "I don't think that this package is going to be competitive eventually," he told reporters.
"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, ask what is the development direction we want to pursue in order to be able to win races.
" I'm sure we can win races this season but it's really the medium and long-term that we need to look at. Every day counts. We are losing these days. It's going to be difficult to catch up so therefore we need to take the right decisions now to set the sails in the right direction.
"I'm looking at what we can find next week, what we can add to the car, what is the change of direction that we can implement and how quickly can we do that, and maybe we can turn the ship around this year. But it needs a lot to change the pecking order."
The obvious example to follow now is that set by Red Bull. They won the race in Bahrain without breaking sweat and clearly have by far the quickest car on the grid this year – so much so that Russell thinks they might win every race in 2023.
Speaking on Sky Sports, pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz urged Wolff to make the required call. He said: "I think the reality has struck. They know where they are. No more messing about. No more talking about engine modes or fuel levels. This car has not worked. They gave it one more chance. Already, Toto is calling it a day after one race.
"The cost cap is key. Lewis said they can't do a Plan B because they can't under the cost cap. But Toto is now tasking his technical people with precisely that – to build a Plan B car for what? Silverstone? This concept hasn't worked. So they are going to concept three. The third concept in two-and-a-half years.
"That is essentially to do what Aston Martin have done. Toto is clear: 'There is nothing wrong with our power unit, there is nothing wrong with our rear suspension, there is nothing wrong with the gear box'. All of which are on the Aston. Look at the Aston, it's a Red Bull copy, more or less. That's what Mercedes will have to do."
