Wolff very dissatisfied: 'That's certainly not acceptable'

The Saudi Arabia Grand Prix is yet another confirmation for Mercedes that the team cannot compete at the top. Lewis Hamilton had a dramatic qualifying today, and team boss Toto Wolff therefore calls the situation unacceptable.

"That's the second race of the season and another confirmation that we are not where we want to be, and need to be," Wolff said in Mercedes' official press release. After the introduction of the new regulations, the teams built a completely new car, but at Mercedes it seems that they went in the wrong direction.

Indeed, four months ago Hamilton was on pole position in Saudi Arabia, now he has to start from P16. George Russell was faster than his teammate and will start from P6 on Sunday. He even managed to reach Q3 on the medium tyre, while the rest of the grid qualified on the softest compound.

"For George, I think today was a good effort considering we only had one soft tyre for Q3, so a solid job from him. Nevertheless, the optimum scenario for us today was the no-man's-land between the Red Bull and Alpine, and that's certainly not acceptable," Wolff said.