The problems with his Mercedes car are so bad that Lewis Hamilton is not enjoying driving it.
The seven-time world champion qualified fifth for the Australian Grand Prix and would have been seventh had it not been for problems affecting two of his teammates.
Hamilton was a second slower than Charles Leclerc's pole position time and said the "porpoising" that has afflicted his car since the start of the season was the worst characteristic.
The man who returned to F1 this season hoping to avenge the loss of the world title admitted winning was a long way off.
He said that they were a second off and that he enjoyed working with the team. I don't enjoy driving the car, but I enjoy working with the guys, knowing that there is a steep hill to climb, and just remaining hopeful that we will get there.
He admitted there was no solution for Mercedes problems.
It takes a long time to make stuff but there is nothing exciting coming at the moment.
Theporpoising, which is caused by a disruption in the airflow under the car, would be the biggest step they could make towards recovering competitiveness this year.
The problem is that the car is still a far faster car.
Hamilton said that he didn't think anyone else did.
Wolff admitted that Mercedes problems were bigger than one issue.
He said that bouncing is worse because we carry it into the corners, so we see where we are losing the performance. We are losing all our margins through a couple of corners.
Is it possible to cure the bouncing? No, for sure not. There are many small improvements we can make on weight and a few others where we can improve, we just need to understand the car.
I think we are going to get there eventually. I don't know if it is in two races or five by the end of the season.
Hamilton was 0.235 seconds slower than Leclerc in the first third of the lap and 0.214 seconds slower in the second. He lost the majority of his time in sector three, which starts with the fast chicane of Turns Nine and 10.
The phenomenon was so bad in Friday practice that Hamilton almost lost control of his car on the curving straight before Turn Nine.
Hamilton said that he had an oversteer moment in the middle of the straight.
The decision to remove the fourth DRS overtaking zone on the flat-out but curving run from Turn Six was made by the race director and Mercedes benefited from it. The cars were planted more and the speeds were reduced because the DRS couldn't be used on that section anymore.
Hamilton said it was good that the DRS sector had been removed, but team-mate George Russell said he disagreed with the decision and that it made his porpoising worse.
The opposing views of the Mercedes drivers on that topic seemed an appropriate reflection of just how lost the team are when it comes to the performance of their car.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull said that he did not agree with the decision and that it was removed this morning.
Verstappen was referring to the fact that Alonso was the most vocal driver in the drivers' briefing on Friday evening about the safety risk of running the DRS through that sector.
Alonso was a surprise contender for pole in an Alpine much-improved by some small upgrades and the team unlocked some of its secrets. Alonso pointed out that the technical failure that caused him to crash on his first lap was a bitter blow for a man who has waited nine years since his last grand prix car.
Anyway, back to the system. Wittich asked the teams for their opinions after Alonso made his point. Wittich preferred to be cautious because five of them said they would prefer it to be removed.
The situation in which Mercedes find themselves is made worse by the fact that the porpoising problem can't be solved in typical fashion, as it doesn't show up in either simulations or the wind tunnel.
The reason for the phenomenon is known, and it's related to the amount of air flowing under the car at a certain speed. This causes a loss of down force, which causes the car to be lifted up, before the air flow comes back, which causes the car to be sucked down.
Experts who have experience porpoising from F1 40 years ago believe the problem is likely to be in one of two areas.
It is thought that the cause is either the floor flexing somehow, somewhere or it touching the track and lifting again. Or both. The problem is figuring out how this is happening.
Wolff thinks we will get it nailed. Many other teams, like Ferrari, still have some bouncing, but they have done many other things right. Red Bull's car got quick in testing by bringing a bodywork upgrade at the end of the final pre-season test.
The car is difficult to correlate because you can only move the car with a certain Frequency in the wind tunnel and it does something completely different.
It is a new way of analyzing aero data, a new way of correlation between simulations and the real world which needs to be understood. We have the tools to understand it, but we haven't found it yet.
There was a small amount of discussion about the back straight, but most of it was taken up by the reminder that the wearing of jewellery and non-compliance underwear in a racing car was forbidden.
Hamilton has a visible nose stud and it was immediately perceived that he would be targeted. That wasn't the case. The governing body is concerned with the nose stud.
The fact that some drivers are racing in underwear that is not fireproof is a risk to them, as it could melt in a fire. The same goes for a watch with a strap. Metal jewellery is a heat conductor and can cause worse injuries in a fire.
It was the longest driver briefing of my life, according to Hamilton, a point that seems to be true.
He said he didn't understand the small things they were picking up, like underwear. We move on.
Hamilton was concerned that the meeting was held with disregard for the risks of Covid, as it means they have to miss races, as Sebastian Vettel has already had to do this year.
The drivers were not wearing masks. The majority of the FIA were not uncomfortable for me.
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