Neither Lewis Hamilton nor George Russell could make much progress during Saturday's Austrian Grand Prix Sprint as Toto Wolff declared it a "disappointing performance" for Mercedes.
Russell started the short-form race in fourth position, and that's exactly where he finished. Meanwhile, Hamilton made contact with Pierre Gasly on the first lap which saw him drop a place from ninth, though he did recover and eventually finished eighth.
But that was only after a laboured and protracted battle with Mick Schumacher for that position. The Silver Arrows are unlikely to be encouraged that it took several laps for the car to finally have the speed to move past the Haas.
Team chief Wolff was full of praise for his mechanics for getting both cars ready in time for the session after Hamilton and Russell crashed in qualifying, but didn't have much else positive to say. "After such an incredible effort from the mechanics to get the cars built and able to race, that was a bit of a disappointing performance in speed terms," moaned the Austrian.
"We failed to show our usual improvement in race pace versus single lap performance, like at other events this year. George did a strong job, but the car was lacking the pace to hold on with the train in front. For Lewis, he had contact on lap one which cost him ground. Then it was a good battle with Mick, who was fighting hard for position."
Commenting on his own race, which saw him quickly get cut adrift of Max Verstappen and the two Ferraris ahead of him, Russell explained the extent of Mercedes' lack of pace. "It was good to get points on the board," he said after earning five from the Sprint, before adding: "As for the performance, the gap was more than we were expecting.
"We were 13 seconds behind after 23 laps, so that's nearly half a second per lap. We need to work overnight to understand why we dropped off the pace. Small things can make a difference – the tyres weren't easy to manage, and different approaches to downforce levels will play a part tomorrow. But we are in no doubt that we've got work to do."
And Hamilton added: "I didn't have a good start, then Pierre moved across on me at turn one. I don't understand why drivers do that when there's so much space to the right, and I couldn't do anything about it. Then the same happened in turn three with a Williams and Red Bull. I got some sort of damage, but at least could continue.
"After that, I was just trying to catch up. We are slower on the straights, so I had to wait until I was out of the DRS train to overtake the cars in front. That's why it took a few laps to get ahead of Mick. Hopefully we can race stronger tomorrow – fingers crossed!"
