Mercedes is not expecting all of its performance issues to be solved overnight after registering its worst two-car finish since 2015 at the last race in Monaco.
Although Mercedes has failed to finish races due to reliability issues or accidents in the last two years and scored fewer points than it did in Monaco two weeks ago, it has rarely been as far off the pace as it was around the streets of the principality.
Mercedes' struggles stemmed from difficulties keeping the tyres at the optimum temperature to extract maximum performance. In Monaco, both drivers complained about the tyres going in and out of the "temperature window" and the difficulties of getting both front and rears performing at the same time.
As it did following the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix when its cars also struggled for outright performance, team boss Toto Wolff said Mercedes has had to dig deep to understand its issues.
"Everybody at the factories is working absolutely flat out to assess the current difficulties we are facing -- to define our objectives, work with the data we have and then come up with the right solutions," he said. "Some of these fixes will be short term, others may take longer. We've had bruising weekends before and it's about showing resilience and getting up after falling. I remember the troubles we had in Singapore in 2015, which hurt badly.
"We gave ourselves a deadline to address that setback before switching our focus to the next race in Suzuka, which we won. We've done exactly the same thing after Monaco -- addressing the problems before turning our attention to Montréal. We know that this season is a marathon, not a sprint."
After three years of domination, Wolff said his team has had to adjust its expectations this season.
"Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games, so said Babe Ruth and he was right. Every season the points reset to zero and, with new regulations like we had this year, historic success doesn't translate into current performance. We've come into this season with a strong car that has allowed us to win three of the first six races. But it has also caused us more complications than we have seen in previous years.
"I had an encounter on Sunday afternoon in Monaco with someone I really respect who asked how I felt after the defeat. I told them how much it hurt and their response was 'that's motor racing'. This is the reality of the situation now. We have to fight with all that we are worth for every single win, pole position, podium finish and every point. You can no longer expect that when you look at a timesheet the two Mercedes will be right at the top."