Mercedes has struggled for ou♛tright pace in the opening three rounds of the season, with fifth on the grid in Bahrain it♏s best qualifying result so far courtesy of Lewis Hamilton.

Porpoising has been at the core of Mercedes’ p𝕴roblems with the W13 bouncing🤪 on the straights more than most teams.

However, reliability has been a strong point for Mercedes which has propelled George Russell into sec🔯ond in the drivers’ championship, albeit 34 points off 💙Charles Leclerc.

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Similarly, Mercedes sits ahead of Red Bull in the const😼ructors’ championship with the latter suffering three ꧋DNFs (Two with Verstappen; one with Perez) in the opening three grands prix.

Speaking during the Australian Grand 🀅Prix 🐓weekend, Wolff reiterated his belief in his team to turn its season around.

“I've been in this situation before in life, and you just need to be humble about it,” Wolff said in Melbourne. “When I said last year with the new regulations, how things were set up, that we could h𓃲ave🐻 a different pecking order. 

“And this is e♍xactly what's happened. The midfield is very, very compressed and we're just not quick enough, full stop. There are so many areas where we know we can improve, others where we don't comprehend the car yet. 

“And we just need to concentrate on ourselves and ch🥂ip away, the performance. The team is still the same, that won many of the championships.”

Mercedes’ innovative ‘no sidepod’ design caught the he▨adlines in pre-season testing with many expecting it to tip the balance of power in the German team’s favour.

Wolff has ruled out reverting to an older specificatౠion of the W13 and still believes in the car’s potential.

“Yes, I do [believe in the car’s potential], because what is the other solution? To dial back and go back many months and then put that car on the track? I don't think this is feasible,” Wolff added. “Because it wouldn't bring us forward in terms of performance compared to the oth🦂er ones. 

“It’s a relative game. So we have, at that stage, no choice than to understand. And whatever the outcome may be, from our understanding, we ma🅺y change or tweak the car.”

No 'substantial' upgrades in pipeline for Mercedes

Russell has revealed tha✅t Mercedes has no plans to introduce ‘substantial’ upgrades♈ in the upcoming rounds.

Speaking after the race at Albert Park, Russell said that Mercedes i▨s looking for “incremental steps” of performance.

“I think pleasantly surprised to be P2 in the championship but I think it's, as I said before, It's credit due to the team for giving us so far, a very reliable car and we've got to be there at the end to capitalise from these results,” Russell said. “It’s defini🍃tely not based on pace but I think it's been a respectable start to the season in terms of how we've managed to optimise our lack of performance. 

“And I think every race we've done, we have truly maximised theཧ result possible. I don't think we could have achieved a higher result at any of the circuits as a team and that is, I guess, a silver lining. But unfortunately, there's nothing substa𓃲ntial in the pipeline anytime soon. It's not going to happen overnight, it's going to take a number of races.

“I think there'll be little 💛things, there'll be incremental steps but we recognise that our rivals are going to be doing the same so it may not be clear to the outside world that we've made progress because Ferrari and Red Bull are going to be making progress a💞s well.”