Mercedes not at the level to win championships - Andrew Shovlin

Mercedes

Mercedes not at the level to win championships - Shovlin

Mercedes has registered just seven points from the last two races

Sam Hall

Wednesday 9 June 2021 11:42

Mercedes director of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin stated the team is "not at that level" where is can fight for championship honours after a zero score in Azerbaijan.

Mercedes has registered just seven points from the past two races in Monaco and Baku, a pair of results that has seen the team surrender the lead in both the drivers' and constructors' standings.

A lack of pace on Friday in Azerbaijan set the tone for Mercedes' most recent weekend with neither driver setting a top 10 worthy time.

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"Not fast enough, we've made mistakes, we struggle to switch the tyres on and we've been on the back-foot through free practice," assessed Shovlin.

"We know the level it takes to win championships and we're not at that level right now so we need to re-group and come back performing the way we know that we can.

"We have the team, the car and the drivers to win this but we need to be tough and honest with ourselves over the next few days. We've had days like this before and each time we've come back strong and we'll look do that in France."

Mercedes form "extremely disappointing"

Although Lewis Hamilton had recovered well in qualifying, setting the second-fastest time, a late-race error dropped him to the back of the field.

With title rival Max Verstappen out of the race already, the mistake marked a missed opportunity to retake the championship lead.

Shovlin added: "[It was] an extremely disappointing end to the weekend but that's just how luck pans out sometimes; Max's misfortune put us in that position in the first place.

"The bigger issue that we have to deal with is that in the last two races we haven't been good enough."