Mercedes shocked: 'The gaps to Ferrari and Red Bull are huge'

"We'd hoped that the car would have been easier to work with here than in Monaco but it's not, and being realistic, the drivers did a very good job to qualify 5th and 7th", Shovlin says in Mercedes' press release.

The speed on the straights seems to have improved, but the team is a bit spooked by the gap towards the top teams. George Russell finished one and a half seconds behind poleman Charles Leclerc's time. "The gaps to Ferrari and Red Bull are huge and it's the corners where we are losing the most. We've definitely got problems with bouncing on the straights but without that, we'd still be lacking performance, so we clearly need to work on a number of fronts."

Mercedes remains realistic

The Azerbaijan GP has already made for a chaotic race on several occasions. So this year, the Mercedes team hopes that a lot will happen again during the race so that there might be an opportunity for the drivers. Ultimately, the goal is still to finish third, Shovlin points out.

"We're at least at the right end of the midfield and will hopefully be in a position to pick up any places if either Red Bull or Ferrari have an issue but the long run picture from Friday doesn't look like we'll be in the same race as them from a pace point of view."