Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted the team is clueless to explain the reasons behind its “worst performance of the year” in the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The German marque seemed poised to be in contention to at least notch a podium as George Russell headed the second row in third, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli fifth.
But while Russell occupied a position inside the top three during the opening stint, the Briton was powerless to repel Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris on newer tyres.
Russell proceeded to slip back at an alarming rate in the remaining laps as he laboured with extreme degradation, crossing the line 18 seconds behind the duo ahead.
Wolff suggested that Mercedes’ sudden slump in Jeddah was unexpected, as he conceded that the team was at an initial loss to pinpoint the loss in competitiveness.
“It was clearly our worst performance of the year so far,” Wolff acknowledged.
“The pace just dropped away with blistering, overheating tyres and so far we haven’t got an explanation.”
Wolff expressed that Mercedes harbouring the speed over one lap to be in contention to bag pole position through Russell exacerbated his bitterness at the outcome.
“You manage your expectations being the second quickest – and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve – and then you see the race panning out like it did. It just adds to the frustration of the situation,” the Austrian added.
Russell denied that his initial attempts to maintain pace with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull as the second stint began compromised him against both Leclerc and Norris.
“I was pushing hard to stay with Max at the beginning of the second stint,” he recalled.
“But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on and we fell off that cliff towards the end.
“I was dropping a second a lap in the last 15 laps, but to be fair, we just didn’t have the pace and even if I had managed more, I think I still would have come home in P5.
“We know that it’s a bit of a weakness of our car at the moment. And coming home P5 on a bad day – we’ll take it – but we need to try and improve it quickly.”
Where Mercedes lost out to rivals in Jeddah
Russell has insisted that Mercedes being unable to compete with McLaren, Red Bull, or Ferrari’s pace was all deep-rooted in the excessive overheating it encountered.
“It’s about how fast we’re going through these corners, and for whatever reason, we’ve generated more temperature than our rivals,” he explained.
“Then suddenly you get to a point where the tyres are like a balloon.
“We had blistering on the front, blistering on the rear, and then suddenly you just have no grip from the tyre at all.”
Russell urges Mercedes to understand slump
But with a similar limitation rearing its head at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Russell has called on Mercedes to revert to the drawing board to comprehend the setback.
“We need to understand why Bahrain was so positive, because that’s also an overheating track, but a very different type of overheating to what you experience here in Jeddah,” he said.
“We had higher hopes for the race today than we had for Bahrain, and it kind of turned out the opposite.”
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