Mortara finding Audi to Mercedes DTM move harder than expected

Mortara missed out on the 2016 DTM title by just four points in 2016 in the last of his six years with Audi.

But the start to his first season with Mercedes has been less successful, with Mortara only 13th in the standings after three rounds with a best result of fourth at Hockenheim.

Mortara admitted adapting to the Mercedes operation has been "a lot more difficult than I thought".

"[My season is] not going great, to be honest, it is a lot tougher," Mortara told Autosport.

"[Mercedes and Audi are] two completely different worlds, for sure not the same and it is taking me really quite a lot of energy and time to get used to it.

"I am not happy, not satisfied with what I am doing at the moment, but just need some time to relax a little bit and try to do a good job."

While he kicked off the season with 15 points at Hockenheim, Mortara has only scored six more points across the two events since.

"Hockenheim was good but for some reason, we started to struggle quite a lot in Lausitz," he said.

"Especially in qualifying I am not finding the right confidence with the car to put it in the front, but the race is always getting a little bit better so I am moving up but at the moment it is tough.

"I was not expecting to struggle [in Hungary] because in the past normally I've been pretty competitive, taking pole positions, winning races.

"I actually looked forward to this race weekend but it turned out to be a lot more difficult for me."

Mortara is 49 points behind championship leader Rene Rast after three rounds.

But he does not think his season can be written as a transitional year yet, as he believes finding the right set-up could transform his pace.

"You never know, it is a question like finding the right settings and we experiment with a lot of them to find the solutions," Mortara said.

"At the moment we still didn't find it but maybe we find them like tomorrow and that could be the beginning of a new season for me.

"At the moment it is not but I am optimistic we can put the finger on what is going on."