Mercedes upgrades not good enough: 'Right direction, but not a huge step'

After a disappointing weekend in Bahrain, Mercedes failed to turn things around on Friday in Saudi Arabia. In the second free practice, George Russell was stuck at P5, while Lewis Hamilton did not progress beyond 11th place. Andrew Shovlin admits his team cannot make a big move at the moment.

Mercedes cannot make a step

"After Bahrain, we came here with realistic expectations," Shovlin began in a press release from Mercedes. "While the team back in the UK is working hard on developing us to a better place, our focus has been to maximise the potential of what we currently have."

The team took updates with them to Jeddah, but do not seem to be able to catch up with them as yet. "There were a couple of scheduled upgrades that look to be working OK but while taking us in the right direction, they are not a huge step," admits the Mercedes chief.

The team can, however, speak of relatively trouble-free practice sessions. "The sessions themselves went smoothly; we were struggling with the front end in the first session and may have over-corrected for the second session. Nevertheless, we've got plenty of information to pick through to work out the setup for tomorrow," he continued.

"The pace when we get the lap together didn't look too bad, but the car hasn't been easy enough to drive so that's something we'll look to improve tomorrow ahead of qualifying," Shovlin said.