Neither George Russell or Lewis Hamilton appeared capable of challenging at the top of the order during the opening months of 2024, but the pair enjoyed a surprise upturn in form ahead of the summer break.
Russell suffered heartbreak in Belgium after seeing another win ripped from his grasp following a post-race disqualification, but Hamilton's promotion to P1 made it three wins from four for the Silver Arrows going into the mid-season interval.
However, the team have failed to build on that progress since, with Russell's third-place finish in Azerbaijan - coming as a result of a late collision between Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez - the team's only appearance on the podium since returning to action.
Now, Russell has admitted their recent form has left everyone at Mercedes scratching their heads.
With less than three weeks to go until the next outing in Austin, the Brit hopes the team can use that time wisely to find out what's been going wrong.
“We have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks to understand why we’ve struggled to challenge at the front in the past few races,” he said, as reported by Motorsport Week.
“We haven’t been as competitive since the summer break and that is frustrating.
“We will work hard to get on top of it though and hopefully the updates we bring to the next race in Austin will help us take a step closer to the front.”