Nico Rosberg is concerned that Mercedes "don't really understand" what is wrong with their W14 car.
The Bahrain Grand Prix was, Mercedes hoped, going to provide evidence that their car concept is capable of competing at the front of the grid. But, instead, Lewis Hamilton finished fifth with George Russell two places further back – and neither of them felt they could have done any better with the machine at their disposal.
And it left Toto Wolff with the grim realisation that they have to undo all their hard work and change tack. "I don't think that this package is going to be competitive eventually," he admitted – and that was after qualifying, before the race had even taken place.
The Austrian later added once the Grand Prix had concluded: "All in all, there is quite a lot to fix. There's a lack of pace, there's a lack of downforce and then of course nothing works because then you'll also damage your tyre."
Most damning of all was that Aston Martin showed much better pace, despite using Mercedes engines and several other parts purchased from the Silver Arrows. It is yet more evidence that a different concept of car is required.
Rosberg feels his old team is in an "extremely difficult situation". F1's budget cap means Mercedes will probably not be able to introduce a car with a wholly different concept until the 2024 season and, even then, they will be behind their rivals in terms of designing and manufacturing that machine.
The 2016 world champion said: "Toto Wolff said that this concept won't go any further – that's a big statement. You have to take a step back this year and then start with the new concept already preparing for the new year.
"I don't want to be in those shoes. The problem is you can't just put new sidepods on it and then it works. The whole car is in a river. The whole car has to change.
"They were 50 seconds behind Verstappen, who didn't give everything. That would otherwise have been 60 seconds – one second per lap. That's hard. They have to find the miracle weapon and make great progress quickly, but they don't really understand it themselves and that's the difficult part."
