Mercedes: We're struggling, no upgrades until Imola

Much was expected from Mercedes during the three-week break, but after a tension-packed Qualifying afternoon in Baku, it was evident that James Allison's return to the hot seat was not a quick fix, which perhaps was not expected, so wasn't the lack of firepower for their drivers.

Speaking after qualy for the Grand Prix, Round 4 of the 2023 F1 World Championship Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told Sky F1: "It is confusing with the times but we are struggling.

"It is so tiny the margins behind the top three so we have got to do the best out of it. We are losing it in three corners. We are pretty matched with Max and Leclerc in the first two corners and the end but in the middle bit the Ferrari is outstanding.

"I think we have it in a good window but generally the car is not stable for the drivers. We didn't put any upgrade on the car, that comes for Imola, so we have to do what we can with this package," revealed Wolff.

"The stopwatch never lies" is a famous Toto line, which is almost an unbearable truth for Mercedes, which dominated F1 for the best part of a decade not too long ago. Today, Hamilton's best effort was nearly a full second down on the top time set by Ferrari's pole winner Charles Leclerc; Russell didn't even make it into Q3, the younger Briton eight tenths off Verstappen's top Q2 time.

Winner in Azerbaijan in 2018, Hamilton reported after qualifying: "We're trying as hard as we can and giving it everything we've got out there. Getting into a rhythm and pulling everything out on this track is not easy. In Q2, I struggled. I had more pace, but I didn't get the last lap together.

"My first run in Q3 was a sweet lap though. Unfortunately, I couldn't make a big improvement on my final run; I needed to find just a little bit more time to get ahead of the Ferrari (of Sainz).

"We can't make any changes to the car now, so this is the pace we have. I will do some studying tonight and hopefully, we can eek a little bit more performance out tomorrow. Naturally, this is not the position we want to qualify as a team; we exist to win but everyone has that winning mindset and working as hard as they can. P5 is still a good position to be starting on Sunday.

"Hopefully tomorrow [Shootout and Sprint Race] we can have a better battle," said seven times F1 World Champion Hamilton, who starts alongside his old foe Fernando Alonso, who was slightly slower in the Merc-customer Aston Martin.

Teammate Russell, who fared even worse, summed up his afternoon of frustration in the team's qualifying report: "I'd have loved to have got through to Q3, and I was giving it everything. Unfortunately, we're just not fast enough this weekend. My first lap in Q2 was strong but I made a mistake on my last run."

He added: "It may have just been enough for me to have crept into Q3, but I don't think we could have qualified much higher than P8. It's a funny sport sometimes. We went from qualifying on the front-row last time out in Melbourne to being out in Q2 today. We've got another chance tomorrow though, but not an ideal Friday for sure.

"Baku is a unique track and a bit of an outlier. If you were going to choose a circuit to have a bad Qualifying at, this would probably be it. I see no reason why we can't fight back on Sunday, and we will see what we can do tomorrow. We will be working hard as a team, and I'll be working hard myself, to see what we can do to come back stronger," declared Russell.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director, added: "The sprint format really rewards you if you land the starting setup in the right place, but we've been battling a few issues with ride and balance today that have made it difficult for the drivers.

"Lewis put together a solid lap in the final session to secure P5 for the Grand Prix. George unfortunately was the wrong side of a very tight bunch and didn't quite make the cut for Q3.

"We're looking forward to the challenge of the new format tomorrow. We get another go at Qualifying tomorrow morning, which sets the grid for the F1 Sprint, so we will work out how we can improve for that. The sprint should also be interesting as so far, we have seen almost no long-run data from the teams so it will be interesting to gauge where we sit on race pace," concluded Allison.