George Russell has warned Mercedes must “make some bigger leaps” to close on their F1 rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. The Briton claimed the Silver Arrows were around “one second” slower than the two leaders on Sunday.
When asked if Mercedes had taken a step forward this weekend, Russell replied “I don’t know”.
He said: “We were probably on average a second behind Red Bull and Ferrari in the race. We are making baby steps at the moment, we need to make some bigger leaps.
“I’m sure we can do that, timeline, I don’t know. At the end of the day, the others are continuing to improve as well.
“We are improving, they’re improving, we just need to do it at a faster rate.”
READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton raises huge Mercedes concerns after Saudi Arabian GP
After the race, Hamilton also raised fears Mercedes are not getting on top of their issues.
He said: “Not much has changed really since the last race, it’s only been a few days. What I know is that today, I couldn’t keep up with the Haas at the end.”
Mercedes struggled for pace all weekend in Jeddah and are still the third-fastest car on pure pace. Hamilton was knocked out of Q1 yesterday for the first time since 2017 in a major shock for the German manufacturer.
Team principal Toto Wolff has warned Mercedes lack of pace for a second weekend in a row was “totally unacceptable”.
He said: “We had a really strong run of eight years leading the pack – not always, but we kind of managed our way into the lead – but this time feels a bit like 2013 when we just weren’t up to the speed of the Red Bulls and probably also the Ferraris.
“We kept fighting and this is how I feel at the moment – we need to fight. It’s certainly totally unacceptable where we are on performance.”
