Mercedes working with parent Daimler to fix slow starts

Mercedes have sought the help of parent company Daimler to try and fix its slow starts which have been a major issue for its drivers, particularly Lewis Hamilton.

Whilst Nico Rosberg has gone on to win both the opening rounds, he lost position in Melbourne when both Ferraris got quicker starts and took over the lead. A strategy error during a red flag and a retirement for Sebastian Vettel later handed the win to Rosberg.

Meanwhile in Bahrain, Rosberg got a very slow start during the formation lap, but nailed the race start and jumped team-mate Hamilton. The Briton too lost places in Melbourne, dropping to sixth from pole and again in Bahrain he dropped to second before contact with Valtteri Bottas dropped him down to seventh.

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff hopes to address the problem with the help of Daimler, though the team aren't entirely sure what is causing the problem.

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"We tend to believe it's more of a hardware issue than just a control electronics problem and you can't solve that from one race to the other," he said.

"We are working on trying to sort it out. The way we assess clutches and the way we run and calibrate them, and obviously how the drivers use them, needs to be optimised."

Wolff admitted the team couldn't guarantee when a fix would be put in place.

"The collaboration with Daimler is around optimising the hardware and that needs a little bit of time."

He added: "I am not sure yet when we will have results."