Ross Brawn admits Mercedes' current level of form is not up to scratch and the team must begin to improve in time for the next race in Belgium.
Team continued to fall off the pace of the front runners in Hungary
Ross Brawn has conceded Mercedes' current level of performance is not up to scratch and the team must begin to improve when the season resumes after the summer break at Spa.
Having struggled for race pace in dry conditions in the previous two rounds at Silverstone and Hockenheim, the Brackley-based outfit had been hoping for a step forward in Hungary but ultimately endured their worst weekend of the season.
In Qualifying neither of their drivers made top 10 run-off and then in the race Nico Rosberg picked up only a solitary point as Michael Schumacher's afternoon descended into a comedy of errors and eventual retirement.
With Red Bull, Lotus, McLaren and Ferrari all recording strong two-car points finishes, it has left Mercedes marooned in fifth place in the Constructors' Championship, closer to the traditional midfield runners than their intended rivals at the front of the field.
Team Principal Brawn said while there some positives to take from Rosberg's recovery drive it was clear the W03 was underperforming and needed a sizeable upgrade.
"Nico did a good job today, and 10th place is about where the car was, if not a little better. He drove very well to make the tyres last which is a positive sign, and a good strategy saw him pick up places," he said.
"We are clearly not as competitive as we want to be and, whilst we got everything out of the car today, we need to find more performance and lap time."
Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug reckons the team's current lap time deficit stands at half a second but is convinced they can claw some of that back over the remainder of the season.
"After his first stop on lap 15, Nico was already 26 seconds down to the leader, and he lost another 25 seconds during the following 52 laps," the German said.
"About half a second a lap - a gap that we experienced already at the previous races in Silverstone and Hockenheim. So it is very clear that we have a lot of work ahead of us, and I am convinced that we will improve our performance during the remaining nine races."
Rosberg added: "We need to find out why we are off the pace at the moment. I hope that we can do better in Spa after the break and we will push hard to make the improvements necessary."
