Wolff: Current Mercedes performance 'totally unacceptable'

Toto Wolff says Mercedes' current level of performance is "totally unacceptable", and insists it's just "not an option" for the Brackley squad to remain where it is.

Mercedes underperformed in Bahrain relative to its Ferrari and Red Bull rivals due to the troubles impacting its 2022 car, but still managed to salvage a podium and a fourth place on race day.

But Lewis Hamilton's shock exit from Q1 on Saturday in Jeddah, for no other reason than a massive lack of pace, has sounded the alarm bells at Mercedes.

And George Russell's P6 result in Q3 was hardly a consolation for the reigning world champions.

"I love competition, and I've always loved competition," Wolff told the media after qualifying.

"We had a really strong run of eight years where we were leading the pack. Not always, but we kind of managed our way into the lead.

"This time, for me, feels a little bit like 2013, where we just weren't up to the speed with the Red Bull, and probably also not with the Ferrari, but we kept fighting, and this is how I feel at the moment.

"We need to fight," added a visibly worried Wolff. "It is certainly totally unacceptable where we are on performance. We're third on the road, sometimes not, even, like today.

"It's just not an option to stay where we are."

• Read also: Mercedes still fighting to get W13 into 'very small window' - Russell

Hamilton claimed after his early exit from qualifying that set-up issues had rendered his car "undriveable".

Wolff said the minor set-up differences between the two Mercedes cars in qualifying translated into a "dramatic" contrast in performance, which underscored the fundamental issues undermining the German outfit's W13.

"There were not huge set-up changes that happened, but they were big enough to have dramatic consequences on the performance of the car – between going out in Q1 and making it solidly into Q3," said the Austrian.

"We had a lower drag rear wing, we took the gurney off, but still it wasn't enough to shave more drag off the car.

"But, generally, I would say this isn't a single problem. We have many parts of the car that don't work, that we don't understand, that don't perform enough, and this is not where we all expect the car to be."

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