It seems a long time ago when Mercedes outrageously dominated F1.

Best team since 2014 and the introduction of hybrid engines, the brand with the star is currently in third place after five races.

Something to worry about his boss Toto Wolff: "At the moment it's a bit dull. We are third, in a way in a no man's land".

Certainly far ahead of McLaren, 4th team (45 points), Mercedes (95) seems powerless against Ferrari (157) and Red Bull (151), who have been able to take the turn of the new technical regulations in force.

It's by far their worst start to the season since 2014 - the previous worst total after five GPs was 148 points and a 2nd place finish in 2021, just one point behind Red Bull.

Seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton thus finds himself floundering in 6th place, his worst start to the season with the German team.

His new teammate George Russell is doing a little better in 4th place.

In question, the very concept of the Mercedes which, faced with the new 2022 regulations, proposed a car with almost completely reduced pontoons.

An aerodynamic solution diametrically opposed, for example, to that of Ferrari, and which does not bear fruit.

However, "it is clear that there is potential in the car and that it is fast", underlined Toto Wolff after the Miami Grand Prix.

"But we just don't understand how to unlock that potential."

In Florida, Mercedes had started the weekend by being competitive in practice on Friday, before sinking in qualifying (6th and 12th) and limiting damage in the race (5th and 6th).

"Were we wrong or not?"

“There is simply no correlation between what we see on our screens and the feelings of the pilots, and that makes it even more difficult,” explained Wolff.

British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton at Miami International Autodrome for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix on May 6, 2022 CHANDAN KHANNA AFP/Archives

The Mercedes W13 would thus, in a simulator, be much more efficient than it really is.

The fault in particular of a phenomenon that has returned this year: porpoising, which makes the single-seaters bounce on the straights.

All teams have experienced this problem with the return to ground effect, which creates suction sucking the chassis from below, but most seem to have fixed it.

Not Mercedes.

"It's important to differentiate between two things: on the one hand the normal program of improvements and on the other hand fixing the problems we are having with rebounds and other things that compromise performance", underlines Mike Elliott, technical director Silver Arrows, on the team's Youtube channel.

"The fins we brought (to Miami) really gave us the performance we expected and was a step forward," he continues, while remaining unresponsive to the porpoising: "To try to understand the rebound, we collected a lot of data (...) and as always, the engineers are studying this data to better understand."

There remains a radical alternative: to change the concept.

To help in this choice, Barcelona will be a decisive track.

During pre-season testing in February in Catalonia, Mercedes did not use the concept without sidepods, but a more "classic" configuration.

"Barcelona is definitely going to be a time when we can draw a comparison with what we saw in February" and the current situation, explains the Austrian CEO.

For the moment, Mercedes and its boss are "faithful to the current concept": Wolff gives "the benefit of the doubt" to his teams at the Brackley factory in England, based on "excellent cars" which have furnished the cabinets to trophies in recent years.

CHANDAN KHANNA AFP/Archives

But after Barcelona, ​​"we will look in the mirror and say: were we wrong or not?".

Suspense, and response on Sunday.

© 2022 AFP