Lewis Hamilton described the worst Formula One season start of his career as tough on the spirit and warned it was a challenge leaving him in danger of just going through the motions, after he and Mercedes endured a dismal weekend at the Australian Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion’s team principal at Mercedes, Toto Wolff, was equally blunt in his assessment, describing it as brutally painful, conceding it was a fair question to ask if it was time he stepped down from the role and that he felt neither positive nor optimistic about his team’s situation.

Hamilton retired with an engine failure on lap 17 of the race in Melbourne, which was won by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

The British driver has been off the pace all weekend, qualifying only in 11th and making little progress in the race when his engine gave out. He has scored only eight points in three races this season, taking seventh in Bahrain and ninth in Saudi Arabia, a worse return than his previous opening nadir in 2009 of a disqualification, sixth and seventh.

This is the third year in succession Mercedes have failed to deliver a car capable of competing at the front and this season have been outpaced not only by world champions Red Bull, but also by Ferrari and on this form in Australia, McLaren.

After leaving his stricken car at the side of the track in Albert Park Hamilton admitted another season of struggle to little avail was far from inspiring.

“This is the worst start to the season I’ve ever had for sure and it’s worse than 2009,” he said. “It’s tough on the spirit for everyone in the team. When so much work is going on throughout the winter for everybody, you come in excited, motivated and driven, and then you’re with the mindset that you’re going to be fighting for wins.

“Then obviously that’s not the case and you’re like: ‘Okay, maybe second, third’. No, it’s not the case, and it cascades a bit further down and you just go through the motions. It’s challenging.”

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His teammate George Russell crashed out on the final lap but had made it no higher than seventh, ending a very disappointing weekend for Mercedes.

They had entered the year having adopted an entirely new design philosophy for their car and were optimistic the new season would bring greater returns. Instead the problems seem all too familiar, the car is not performing as predicted in the wind tunnel and does not present a stable, reliable platform from one race to the next.

Wolff, who joined Mercedes in 2013 – the same year as Hamilton – and who has been beside the British driver as he secured six titles with the team, conceded it had been a bitter start to 2024.

“You see the progress that McLaren and Ferrari have made, so on one side, I want to punch myself on the nose,” he said. “We have got to really dig deep because it is brutally painful.

“I would be lying if I said I feel positive and optimistic about the situation. You need to overcome the negative thoughts and say ‘we will turn it around’, but today it feels very, very, very brutal.”

The 52-year-old, who is a one-third shareholder in Mercedes, also admitted it was reasonable to ask if he was the right person to lead the team but insisted he would not be stepping down.

“I look at myself in the mirror every single day about everything I do and it is a fair question but it [leaving] is not what I feel that I should do at the moment,” he said.

“If you ask the manager question, I cannot go to Chelsea or Liverpool or over to Ferrari, I have not got that choice [as a co-owner] which is also unfortunate. I am not a contractor or an employee, who has said: ‘I have had enough of this’. My hamster wheel keeps spinning and I cannot jump out.”

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