Lewis Hamilton has insisted he will work with Mercedes to turn their fortunes around after their poor showing at Sunday's Brazil Grand Prix.
The Brit had predicted a difficult day at the office prior to the big event in South America.
And Hamilton's prophecy turned out to be accurate, with Mercedes enduring a torrid afternoon.
The Stevenage-born racer was only able to finish eighth, with Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz Jr and Pierre Gasly all superior on the day.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes struggled at the F1 Brazil Grand Prix on Sunday
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To compound Mercedes' misery, George Russell did not finish - with the Brit ending up in 15th as a result.
Hamilton signed a new contract with the Silver Arrows earlier in the year, having been persuaded to stay with the side.
Some think he'd be wise to leave, though, especially given he's entering the twilight years of his career.
Mercedes look unlikely to challenge Red Bull for Formula One supremacy any time soon.
Yet Hamilton has insisted he will work with the side to turn things around, while also admitting he's concerned their rivals are too far ahead.
“Ultimately, in the moment, it is a step back,” he said.
“But as a team we’ll just come together and we’ll try and push forward.
“There’ll be a lot of analysis this week after today.
"I’m sure there’ll be things that will be like ‘ah, maybe if we had done this, it would have been better’.
"But I think still, ultimately, the car didn’t work here for some reason and that is the way it is.”
He continued: “Ultimately all I can do is try to remain optimistic.
“The Red Bull, I think, is so far away I think they’re probably going to be very clear for the next couple of years.”
Hamilton was unhappy with the way he performed on Saturday, though did feel he improved at the main event 24 hours later.
“I knew that we would have a difficult day,” he stated.
“Nothing changed in the car from yesterday to today so I knew it would be a tough one.
“Yesterday I just ate through the tyres with an unexpected lack of pace. I think I drove better today in terms of at least making my stints, but we were just slow.”
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff, meanwhile, was livid at the way the team performed and insisted the changes they made to their vehicles weren't good enough.
"An inexcusable performance," he said.
"There are no words for that. That car finished second last week and the week before and whatever we did to it was horrible.
"Lewis survived out there but George... I can only feel for the two driving such a miserable thing.
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Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff were both critical of Mercedes following their issues at the F1 Brazil Grand Prix
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"So it shows how difficult the car is, it's on a knife's edge.
"We've got to develop it better for next year because it can't be that in seven days of finishing on the podium with a solid, quick car, you're nowhere.
"We're clearly not world champions on Sprint race weekends.
"We did some good work here at the track to get it done, but it still doesn't explain what went wrong.
"The car drove like it was on three wheels and not four."
