F1 | Mercedes is also far away in France, answers are being sought on the gap with Ferrari and Red Bull

from Le Castellet, France

Mercedes is continuing to have several performance issues. According to the weekend forecasts, the W13 should have adapted to Paul Ricard, but evidently the difficulties that this car has had since its birth are far from being resolved. The center of the group is not that far behind, also given the performance of Norris, who slipped between Hamilton and Russell in qualifying, while Ferrari and Red Bull are light years away.

“Qualifying was anything but easy for us – admitted Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes on-track technical director. We struggled on the fastest lap all day, and both drivers did a good job getting the two cars into the top six, as it was also tricky to get into the top ten. We wanted to try different solutions in the last attempt, trying to get the tires into the right window but this didn't help us in the final lap"

“We have no answers about the gap being so wide from those in front: we hope that the pace in the race is better, also because that's usually how it went in the rest of the season, despite not having tried much on Friday. It will be a complicated race for the tyres, the degradation is higher than expected and there should be asphalt temperatures above 50°C, and this could create opportunities, but it is difficult to be able to set very precise objectives."