Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said that the team will “take a chainsaw” to the cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Brackley-based outfit struggled for pace in Bahrain compared to their rivals, Ferrari and Red Bull. Hamilton managed to finish third in the Grand Prix. But that was due to late retirements from Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

Mercedes have the third-fastest car on the Formula 1 grid at their current pace. However, given that they have won each of the last nine constructors’ titles, that is a disappointment.

Hamilton called the Bahrain podium “pretty remarkable” and said that the race was a “struggle”.

The critical problem for Mercedes appears to be drag and power. The W13 simply cannot compete with the Ferrari and Red Bull power units in a straight line. Ferrari’s power unit, meanwhile, is far better when exiting slower corners.

Although Mercedes did manage to achieve good results, other Mercedes-powered teams struggled. Aston Martin, Williams and McLaren filled the bottom six places and failed to get any of their cars in the points.

Read: Lando Norris’s honest post-Bahrain comments will worry fans

Unfortunately for Mercedes fans, Toto Wolff isn’t entirely sure about the exact cause of the problem. However, he has said that it will take some races before the team can pinpoint it.

He explained: “I think we are running more drag, or we have the data that we are running more drag than anyone else.

“We can see we are losing on the main straight, but not so much on all the other ones, so we need to make an assessment after the first couple of races to see if we are lacking power or deployment before we point fingers into some of the areas.”

Wolff then pointed towards what some fans may see as an extreme method to fix some of their problems.

“I think we were probably over-winged,” he said.

“We had too much drag, and that’s just because we are lacking parts at the moment. Hopefully, we can remedy that. It’s half or a little bit more, maybe, of the top-speed advantage, but we need to really leave no stone unturned on the power unit side.

“It’s easier to shed drag off the car because you simply take a chainsaw and cut the rear wing to bits, so that’s what we will do for Jeddah.”

Read: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: UK start time, how to watch and highlights channel

Mercedes, Hamilton and Russell will hope that the chainsaw does the trick when they take to the track for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday.