Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes ‘messes with his mind’ after qualifying a terrible 11th in Melbourne.
Any improvement in his car is hard to detect despite a new design concept for this season. The seven-time world champion has been more closely involved in the W15 than in previous recent cars – but with no joy.
He has qualified eighth, ninth and 11th this season and finished seventh in Bahrain and ninth in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, the British driver said: ‘The inconsistency in the car really messes with the mind.
‘George Russell (his team-mate who has out-qualified him at each rounds, setting the seventh best time today) did a good job, and I have to try to do a better job tomorrow.
Lewis Hamilton claimed his Mercedes car ‘messes with his mind’ as he lamented its problems
The seven-time world champion only qualified 11th on a frustrating afternoon for Mercedes
‘There is a long list of things to fix. Our car is on a knife edge.
‘In the afternoon the wind picks up and the car becomes unstable. But the others can pick their pace up in qualifying and I am not sure why.
‘It is not a great feeling for everyone in the team but we will keep working away.’
Hamilton, who will join Ferrari next season, added: ‘It is three years in a row where I have had a similar feeling.
‘There are spikes like this morning where I think it can be good, and then it disappears.
‘If we can make the car more consistent maybe we can be more competitive. Everyone is pushing as hard as they can.’
Team principal Toto Wolff said: ‘It’s especially underwhelming because we were within a tenth in FP3. The conditions were a little bit different but there is no excuse.
Toto Wolff said there was ‘no excuse’ for the team’s performance but called the car ‘difficult’
George Russell qualified seventh but was more than 0.8 seconds slower than Max Verstappen
‘We have a car that is difficult and you can be narrowly in and out of the window.
‘Much as I am annoyed for having to say this for a long time, we just need to continue working on it and trying to get better. It is not because of a lack of effort that we are where we are, but it’s not good enough.’
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