Mercedes team boss and co-owner Toto Wolff says the reigning world champion outfit cannot continue to lose points as it has in its last two races, insisting that its current lack of proficiency is "not acceptable".
Mercedes' races in Monaco and in Azerbaijan yielded just 7 points while arch-rival Red Bull enjoyed a 62-point haul in the last two rounds.
The shortfall has left the Brackley squad significantly trailing in the Constructors' standings but also on the track where Mercedes' 2021 car remains a troublesome and inexplicably inconsistent contender, a fact validated by the stopwatch but also by the downbeat comments of late of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
For Wolff, it's time to get tough on his crews.
"I think there's lots of things that are not running smoothly as they have in the past few years," the Mercedes boss admitted.
"Operationally we are not at our A-game. We haven't found really the sweet spot of the car through qualifying and race, of having a quick qualifying car and a quick race car.
©Mercedes
"There's just so much that we need to improve, that I just want to get on it right now, after this call, in order to make sure that we are actually able to compete for this championship.
"You can't continue losing points, like we've done in Monaco and here. It is just not acceptable for all of us."
Wolff acknowledged that the last few weeks have been the toughest he's endured at the helm of the Mercedes team.
"Yeah, they are the toughest," he commented. "Because not having performance in Monaco, and Valtteri, who would have made it solid on the podium, needing a pitstop of 36 hours, is not really a great achievement, based on the standards that we're setting ourselves.
"Then the car that was almost all sessions [in Baku] nowhere. Then, to be honest, cruising in third and even trying to make it was okay.
"But it's just not acceptable that we are not getting the car into a performant position after the start, or out of the pitstops. It's just we're losing seconds over seconds."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
