Mercedes had expected to be in contention for the win in France. Toto Wolff says he cannot figure out why the car, which has even been fitted with new updates, had so little pace in qualifying.

For Paul Ricard, the W13 received a redesigned floor and some wing adjustments, as well as some changes to the nose cooling and front brakes.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says opposite The Race that the lack of performance in France took his team by surprise after good results at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring."We came here thinking we would race for a victory, and we’re further off than we were before."

Good signs

The Austrian said there was a lot of evidence that they were slowly making their way back to the front."There were good signs in Silverstone, then we went to Austria, a track where we’re normally not competitive at all, and we could clearly see the signs why we were not competitive" He concludes, "We were close, so that was acceptable."