Toto Wolff has labelled Lewis Hamilton a "long shot" to win a record-breaking eighth world F1 title in 2022.
The new campaign represents a seismic one in the history of the sport, with brand new technical regulations being introduced. The regulations, designed to make racing more competitive, have left all teams needing to make major adaptations to their cars.
And Mercedes, constructors' champions for the past eight seasons, have struggled to get to the grips with things. Both Hamilton and George Russell were underwhelming in both rounds of pre-season testing, and seemingly carried the difficulties into Bahrain last weekend.