F1: Mercedes appears more lost than ever after Miami

Mercedes appear no closer to finding any reliable speed from their W13 with former F1 driver and analyst Martin Brundle saying the Miami Grand Prix “was their most concerning weekend” so far.

The Silver Arrows are operating in a no man’s land that’s well out of reach of front-runners Ferrari and Red Bull, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth and sixth at the Miami GP respectively.

Russell was upbeat about Mercedes’ chances moving forward, but Hamilton and team boss Toto Wolff have been more realistic.

Wolff said that Mercedes “haven’t had this situation before” in which the drivers are reporting issues that isn’t marrying up with the data.

“The data sometimes doesn’t show what the drivers tell us and they have their hands full with a car that is just not at all nice to drive, or comfortable to drive, or predictable to drive,” Wolff said. “But the data don’t show these big swings.

“We haven’t had this situation before in any of the years, where it just didn’t correlate at all with what we see on our screens, with what the driver feels and that’s making it even more difficult.”

Wolff said the W13 is fast, but the team doesn’t “understand how to unlock the potential”.

Writing in his column for Sky Sports, Brundle said the fact Mercedes still have little understanding of the car’s issues makes their situation all the more alarming.

“Mercedes were once again the third-best team but in many ways I think it was their most concerning weekend given that George Russell was fastest on Friday and struggled for pace thereafter and the team simply didn’t know why,” Brundle wrote.

“They’ve talked about ‘diva’ cars before but this one is just a plain mystery with a knife-edge window of set-up.

“There’s a good car in there somewhere, it’s just so well hidden.”