Toto Wolff confident 'humble' Mercedes will fix F1 car issues

Mercedes has struggled for outright pace in the opening three rounds of the season, with fifth on the grid in Bahrain its best qualifying result so far courtesy of Lewis Hamilton.

Porpoising has been at the core of Mercedes’ problems with the W13 bouncing on the straights more than most teams.

However, reliability has been a strong point for Mercedes which has propelled George Russell into second in the drivers’ championship, albeit 34 points off Charles Leclerc.

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Similarly, Mercedes sits ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ championship with the latter suffering three DNFs (Two with Verstappen; one with Perez) in the opening three grands prix.

Speaking during the Australian Grand Prix weekend, Wolff reiterated his belief in his team to turn its season around.

“I've been in this situation before in life, and you just need to be humble about it,” Wolff said in Melbourne. “When I said last year with the new regulations, how things were set up, that we could have a different pecking order. 

“And this is exactly what's happened. The midfield is very, very compressed and we're just not quick enough, full stop. There are so many areas where we know we can improve, others where we don't comprehend the car yet. 

“And we just need to concentrate on ourselves and chip away, the performance. The team is still the same, that won many of the championships.”

Mercedes’ innovative ‘no sidepod’ design caught the headlines in pre-season testing with many expecting it to tip the balance of power in the German team’s favour.

Wolff has ruled out reverting to an older specification of the W13 and still believes in the car’s potential.

“Yes, I do [believe in the car’s potential], because what is the other solution? To dial back and go back many months and then put that car on the track? I don't think this is feasible,” Wolff added. “Because it wouldn't bring us forward in terms of performance compared to the other ones. 

“It’s a relative game. So we have, at that stage, no choice than to understand. And whatever the outcome may be, from our understanding, we may change or tweak the car.”

No 'substantial' upgrades in pipeline for Mercedes

Russell has revealed that Mercedes has no plans to introduce ‘substantial’ upgrades in the upcoming rounds.

Speaking after the race at Albert Park, Russell said that Mercedes is looking for “incremental steps” of performance.

“I think pleasantly surprised to be P2 in the championship but I think it's, as I said before, It's credit due to the team for giving us so far, a very reliable car and we've got to be there at the end to capitalise from these results,” Russell said. “It’s definitely not based on pace but I think it's been a respectable start to the season in terms of how we've managed to optimise our lack of performance. 

“And I think every race we've done, we have truly maximised the result possible. I don't think we could have achieved a higher result at any of the circuits as a team and that is, I guess, a silver lining. But unfortunately, there's nothing substantial in the pipeline anytime soon. It's not going to happen overnight, it's going to take a number of races.

“I think there'll be little things, there'll be incremental steps but we recognise that our rivals are going to be doing the same so it may not be clear to the outside world that we've made progress because Ferrari and Red Bull are going to be making progress as well.”