Wolff pessimistic: "That's just one of five or six problems"

Mercedes, according to Toto Wolff, is hampered by 'five or six problems' that are preventing the team from performing better. He reiterated that Red Bull Racing are currently 'in a class of its own' and he fears his team will not be able to compete for victory in Bahrain.

Mercedes can never be flattened, of course, but the team will need to come up with something quickly if they are to look good in the opening weekend. Both over a lap and in the long runs, the team had to lose out to competitors at Red Bull Racing and Ferrari on Friday.

Wolff: 'Red Bull is in a league of its own'

On Friday, the Mercedes team boss already acknowledged that Max Verstappen was in "a league of his own" and he reiterated this again during Saturday's press conference. "Red Bull is in a league of its own," he admitted to the likes of The Race. The Austrian therefore fears that his team is currently unable to fight at the top.

But that doesn't mean the gap is permanent. Wolff said he is optimistic about some 'simple solutions' to the team's problems. Those problems aren't limited to porpoising. "That's just one of five or six issues where we believe there is big performance to gain," he stated.

Some problems are simple; others are more complicated, according to Wolff. He argued that the team needs to look at every area of the car to solve all the problems over time. At the same time, he does not flatten his own team for the battle for the world title. "Even if you lose a race or two or you end up outside of the podium, nobody’s protected against DNFs or crashes. We’ve seen last year, they played a big role," the Mercedes boss noted.