Toto Wolff admits even Adrian Newey may struggle to fix Mercedes’ current problems

Toto Wolff dropped a hint that even Adrian Newey would struggle to solve Mercedes’ problems in Miami.

George Russell qualified seventh and Lewis Hamilton eighth for the F1 Miami Grand Prix.

They both failed to score a point in Saturday's sprint race.

Once more, both Mercedes drivers gave worrying verdicts about the competitiveness of the W15.

Mercedes team principal Wolff was asked about his interest in Newey, Red Bull’s outgoing chief technical officer who is seemingly up for grabs.

“He is an incredible engineer," Wolff said to Sky Germany.

"But at the moment, even the greatest magician would probably have a hard time solving our problems."

Mercedes, like every other top team in F1, is expected to hold an interest in Newey’s next move.

Newey, widely considered the greatest-ever Formula 1 car designer, will depart Red Bull next year.

Ferrari are seemingly best-placed to bring him on board. Newey would find Hamilton in red next year.

Hamilton offered a bleak review of his qualifying on Saturday.

"For us to be eighth tenths off is tough,” he said.

“We are fighting the Haas and I don't really know if that's the true speed of our car or whether it's the tyres.”

Russell said after qualifying: “When we look at the data we understand why we’re in the position we are right now.

“We’ve gone from this extreme to that extreme now so we’ve got to rewind and find ourselves in a halfway house.”

Mercedes brought a revised floor upgrade to Miami.

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained: "Over the next four or five races, there are other developments that we're looking at to try and get the car handling a bit more consistently, and a bit less tricky to work with. But that's all coming in the next few [races].

"We are just behind on development, which is one of the areas we need to improve.

“But also just getting the car to be a bit more versatile across a range of tracks will be a very important focus for us."