How F1's 'lion' is being caged by Mercedes

A month ago very few people would have bet that Mercedes would fail to win any of the opening three races of the Formula 1 season.

It's incredibly close in F1 at the moment. The days of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg droning around at the front of the field - basically able to finish one-two unless they broke down or crashed into each other - seem like another lifetime.

It's now a six-car fight, and Mercedes has to get everything right to beat Ferrari and Red Bull. The early races of this season have put a focus on one particularly important aspect - communications in races, and in particular the need to keep the drivers fully aware of what is happening around them and how hard they have to push at a particular time.

So why is it such a big deal? We live in an age when F1 drivers go to the grid with enormous pressure on the resources at their disposal. They must maximise the tyre life over each stint, save fuel, and keep on top of other parameters such as engine and brake temperatures. They also have to protect a gearbox that must do five races, and be constantly aware that under the 2018 rules the power unit package has to survive seven grand prix weekends to avoid penalties. Some parts of it must last half a season.

Drivers also have to know how much of those resources they can use up in the context of a battle for a race win. If they're not fully aware of what's going on in the race, and who they're racing, it's even more difficult to know how to deploy those resources.

"When you have a stint you [metaphorically] have a certain amount of money to spend," explains Hamilton. "If you look at Melbourne, I had money left by my stop. I shouldn't have had much money left. If I had £100 in the first stint, I still had £20 left at the end, and I should have had maybe 30p.

"The only way we can get to use it, that last small percentage, is if communication is on point. So, then you know where to be spending it. If you don't have the information and you do overspend, you won't hit your target lap. It's very marginal now. It really highlights or magnifies the importance of communications, and these little things that can make a difference of seven points or not.

"If you look at [Australia], we should have won that race. And through struggling to understand how we operate, communicate, we did lose the race. Looking back there were things we could have done to make sure we came out ahead. These races we can't afford to be losing to Ferrari."

"We need to understand what information the drivers need, in order to set their own targets, and not expect a high performing lion to drive like a robot" Toto Wolff

On Sunday night in Bahrain Hamilton made it clear that better communication now needed to be a focus, and it was. It wasn't just his problem. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas found himself lost at times in that race, not knowing how hard to push, because even Mercedes didn't know when - or, as it turned out, if - Sebastian Vettel was going to stop again. When the picture finally became clear it was too late to react, and the Finn fell short.

"At one point I understood that the guys were doing two stops," said Hamilton of that scenario. "And there's no way they're going to get to the end on the one stop. I've got to save tyres so that when we're at the end, and he catches me, I can still fight.

"Or I've got to catch him while the tyres are still good, and close the gap to the best of my ability, because they're doing a one-stop. I didn't have that information, so there was lots of driving around in no man's land for a while."

There were only a few days between races, but in China both Hamilton and Bottas were involved in lengthy briefings during the weekend on the subject, and how things could be done better.

"We had a big discussion around how you can optimise that," said team boss Toto Wolff in Shanghai. "And every driver is different. Some drivers need more information. Some less. And I think we haven't been great [in Bahrain] at telling Lewis what was happening, and what could have been done.

"We need to communicate more, and understand what information the drivers need, in order to set their own targets. And not giving target times and expect a high performing lion in the car to drive like a robot to target times. There is room for optimisation, and we will do that."

It's much harder in races that feature offset strategies, when you can't see a rival because they've pitted, or you've pitted.

"If you can see the leader in front of you it is easier," agrees Wolff. "But genuinely we can do more, and it shows that after so many years together we can improve the way we communicate with each other. That can also be a game changer, especially in understanding how much you need to push the cars.

"At a certain stage [in Bahrain], Valtteri was running behind Sebastian after the stops and said, 'Do I need to catch up to Sebastian or not for the moment?' If we would have said, 'We are not sure if he is stopping again,' he would have judged it differently for himself in the car."

At last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, there were times when Hamilton was questioning the strategy of not stopping under the safety car, and asking for more information. And one moment when he clearly received too much, he snapped: "Leave me to it, man!"

"It's a work in progress," said Hamilton. "I mean, there was a point where it was just constantly saying 'Max is...[close behind]' and I was like 'yeah, I can see him, I know he's right behind me' and he's got fresh tyres, so it's only a matter of time. I'm going to get out of his way as he's got a 10-second penalty and I'm not going to get caught up like others often do."

In Bahrain, the 'high performing lion' seemed to be unhappy about racing in an era when he has to focus so much on saving tyres, fuel and engines, rather than pure racing. But Hamilton's outlook outside the car, with the benefit of reflection, was more considered.

"At the moment I'm ending the race with more money in my pocket, and that's frustrating. I could have spent more" Lewis Hamilton

"I don't find it frustrating, it's challenging just in a different way," he said. "I'm still enjoying driving. Yeah, you can't push flat out - of course I would love that - but it's just not the way it is. I don't know how much more exciting racing [like] that would be.

"Fundamentally there are other flaws that stop us getting past traffic, and a big difference between the first six, and the next bunch [who] are 60 seconds behind. There's all these other things that are more frustrating than that. I see it as very technical.

"That information, that I can decide to spend a bit more, it doesn't make it less exciting. It just means I need to be smarter in the car. You're using more tools. Every driver here can go and drive flat out. In Formula 3 and all the others, [you] drive flat out.

"The skill is not the same as what we have to [do] now, where we're saving the fuel and using things to balance and get the optimum. I enjoy that challenge, it's just at the moment I'm ending the race with more money in my pocket. And that's frustrating, because if I'd been given some information, I could have spent more."