Toto Wolff cut a frustrated figure after a qualifying session which underlined the fact that Mercedes are not as quick as they hoped they would be this weekend.
There was a lot of hype surrounding the Silver Arrows coming into the French Grand Prix amid their recent improvements. Some were even tipping Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to challenge for the race win.
But practice and qualifying showed that there is still a significant gap to the front-runners. They were nine-tenths and more off the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari, hinting that their new upgrades for this weekend may not have had the desired effect.
Hamilton still qualified on the second row in fourth place, with Russell just behind on the grid in sixth. But Wolff had the times on his mind rather than the result as he appeared irritated in an interview with Sky Sports F1.
"I think we knew that once we get the new tyres on and we are driving the car in anger that we are going to be the third force, but it's just not good enough," he said. He went on to explain that his team decided to use practice and qualifying for testing purposes after quickly figuring out that they were not as quick as they hoped.
"You can see when you're a little bit on the back foot, your expectations are on a certain level for the race weekend and it doesn't come together, the freestyling starts," he added. "With us it was mainly experimenting with rear wing levels and also tyre temperatures. But in the end the overall package is just not quick enough and you can see that.
Wolff did go on to add that Hamilton did an "immense job", and expressed some surprise that the seven-time world champion was able to make the second row amid their performance issues. He said: "He did a great, great job. He probably extracted more than the car has at the moment."
Meanwhile, Russell felt he could have done better after being pipped to fifth place by friend and McLaren rival Lando Norris. "As a team we're probably a little further away than we would have hoped, would have expected," said the young Brit.
"Personally, I had a good start to Q3 and felt comfortable, but I made a mistake on my last lap. At the end of the day, I think the gap is more concerning than the finishing order.
