"This isn't a single problem, we have many parts of the car that don't work" - Mercedes on their performance deficits in the 2022 F1 Saudi Arabian GP

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff claims there are many parts in the W13 that don't work. The team had a disappointing outing in the qualifying sessions at the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix despite trimming their rear wings.

The Silver Arrows had a night to forget on Saturday, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton missing out on Q2 for the first time since Brazil 2017. Teammate George Russell, meanwhile, fared better - finishing P6 at the end of the session. However, Mercedes are understandably upset with themselves, with their porpoising problem seemingly having no end in sight.

Speaking to the media after the event, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff claimed that the German outfit has multiple issues to solve and not just one singular point of failure. He said:

"You can see between Lewis's and George's performances, there were not huge set of changes that happened but they were big enough to have dramatic consequences on the performances of the car. So that's why this car is tricky to set up."

"We had a lower drag rear wing. We took the Gurney [flap] off but still it wasn't enough to shave more drag off. This isn't a single problem. We have many parts of the car that don't work, we don't understand or they don't work well enough".

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Mercedes trimmed their rear wings in anticipation of the Saudi Arabian GP

The team trimmed the rear wings of their W13s after it allegedly caused a straight-line speed deficit in the opening race in Bahrain. Many suspected the problem to be with the team's power unit, but the team claims all issues were due to the aerodynamic setup in Sakhir.

While many suspected that their engine was down in power compared to their rivals, Mercedes CTO James Allison confirmed that any straight-line speed deficiencies were due to aerodynamic choices made by engineers. He said:

“I think most of that is coming from the size of our rear wing. If you look at the cars coming down the straights one after the other and just look at the frontal area of the rear wings that each team has, you will see that we were running the biggest rear wing."

"Rear wings are a large factor in how much drag the car has, and the amount of drag a car has is a large factor in what the end-of-straight speed of the car will be.”

With both cars starting further back on the grid than they would have hoped for, the team is hopeful of tremendous performances from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to help them secure valuable championship points on Sunday.