George Russell says that Mercedes are actually getting slower during the three days of each of the opening race weekends of the season, rather than their rivals managing to find improvements and getting quicker.
Russell was second quickest in FP2 but qualified for the race in P7. He finished Saturday's Saudi Arabian GP in sixth while his team mate Lewis Hamilton finished down a place on his grid position after adopting a different pit stop strategy.
Both drivers struggled to match the pace of the cars around them in the race, and Russell admitted that the new W15 was definitely underperforming - and moreover, was making no progress over the course of the weekend.
“We're still really trying to understand this car because we have shown true performance at points over the last two weekends,” Russell said. “FP1, straight out of the box, we were top of the timesheets and always in the top three.
"In FP2 [we were] P2. Then both weekends the pace just fell away from us," he complained. “That hasn't been our competitors getting faster; it's been us getting slower.
"We need to understand why that is, but it's fine margins now," he acknowledged. “It’s so close with ourselves, McLaren, Aston. [Ferrari] is just a smidge ahead. We just need to tap into it a bit more.”
The Mercedes suffered from overheating last weekend and both drivers have reported the car 'bouncing' in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, although Russell said that "there's more to it" than that.
“It's so complex these days, these cars are so complicated," he offered. "The tyres are very difficult as well. Right now, I don't have the answers.”
As for his immediate problems on Saturday, Russell said that "I spent nearly 40 laps within 1.5s of Fernando Alonso, but couldn't get past. I couldn't get close enough in the high-speed to give him any real pressure.
"I had a slippery car on the straights," he explained. "P6 was likely a fair result in the end and it's clear that we haven't found the sweet spot with this car just yet.
"We need to find a bit more performance. We've seen potential and pace in the car, but we haven't shown it when it's mattered. We need to understand why that is and improve ahead of Melbourne.
"The pecking order behind the Red Bulls is very close so we need to get on top of it. There's lots of work to do, but I believe in the team."
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