Brundle: It must be tense at Mercedes right now

Mercedes persisted with their F1 car design philosophy from 2022, and their W14 - like the previous W13 - had drastically slim sidepods, and while the new car is no way close to its predecessor's vicious bouncy habits, it is painfully slow.

During the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, Mercedes were sixth tenths of the pace of Red Bull in qualifying, that gap increasing to a second in the race; something former F1 driver and respected pundit Martin Brundle described as a "shocker" in his post-Bahrain Sky Sports F1 column.

The veteran of 158 grands prix reflected on this year's F1 season opener in Bahrain, and naturally weighed in on the grim situation at Mercedes after their apparent troubled early on.

"It seems to me that Mercedes went the wrong way in 2022 and refuse to turn around," Brundle wrote. "Even Lewis and Toto were openly expressing their disappointment at certain points of the weekend, and normally they only sing the praises of the teams at Brackley and Brixworth.

"It must be tense at the team right now; the quality is there it just needs direction and oxygen to calm heads," he pointed out.

"'Zero-sidepod concept' is not the buzz phrase they'll want to hear again, but the mantra from the team was that to change direction would necessitate a step backwards first before working up and understanding a new philosophy of aerodynamics. George Russell has already said that he's prepared to suffer that pain for longer term gain.

"They dogmatically turned the Mercedes into a late winning car last season, but I don't see or hear the appetite for another year like that," Brundle noted.

When Mercedes showed up for the 2014 F1 season, the first of the Turbo-Hybrid era, they utterly demolished he competition with a super power unit, so powerful that they didn't need to use all its power most of the time, while their chassis have been handy and greatly complemented the power unit.

That's how Mercedes racked up eight consecutive Constructors' Titles and seven Drivers' Titles between 2014 and 2021, but that is a thing of the past now.

Brundle wrote: "In the early phases of the hybrid era, they [Mercedes] had such a hugely dominant power unit - they haven't got that anymore. When the window was open to improve the power units, they lost out.

"They've also lost key people like Andy Cowell, James Vowles, and others, with James Allison also currently focused elsewhere. The remaining talent pool is immense, but it hasn't gelled yet," he added.

"And before changing the philosophy and architecture of a Formula 1 car you need to understand what you want and where you're heading, which is especially difficult in the cost-cap era 23 race season," he insisted.

The Mercedes powertrain, on the other hand, is doing a decent job bolted at the back of Aston Martin's admirable AMR23, and propelled Fernando Alonso to a third place finish in Bahrain, beating both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell on the way.

Brundle believes Aston Martin's form will add to Mercedes' pain; he said: "Because of their lowly championship finishing position last year, under the latest rules Aston Martin have so much more wind tunnel development time than their main three rivals.

"It's already a good package but if they know where to go to improve it, then by mid-season they could emerge as the major challengers to Red Bull.

That's doubly painful for Mercedes because Aston Martin have the same engine, gearbox and rear suspension and use the same wind tunnel," the 63-year-old maintained.

Lewis Hamilton recently lamented the fact Mercedes did not listen to his feedback while developing this year's W14 asking for those responsible to be accountable. Interesting times ahead at Mercedes...