Imola GP: Footage shows just how bad Hamilton & Russell's Mercedes car really is

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell continued to struggle to compete on Friday afternoon as the Mercedes Formula 1 car looked even more bouncy on the wet Imola track.

New rules and regulations brought trials and tribulations for Mercedes which has seen the biggest downfall in competitiveness this season.

The now well-known term ‘porpoising’ has been a major issue to tackle for all the teams, but many have been able to minimise the effects and push ahead.

That has not been the case for Mercedes, though, as their car starts to bounce at lower speeds than their rivals and gives their two star drivers’ heads a never-ending wobble.

In Friday’s qualifying session at Imola, the rain and cool weather made heating up tyres much harder, something which Mercedes already have problems with.

Due to their porpoising problem, the team is forced to use a big rear ride height to make the car at least somewhat drivable, but it takes away a lot of downforce.

I couldn’t help but mention the porpoising Mercedes team, the car looks naive, Lewis and Russell were out of Q3 today.All image rights to @F1 and F1tv pic.twitter.com/57McwdelcI

Cold tyres and low downforce is an unfortunate combination and the pace of the Mercedes was visibly hurting as a result.

An incredible five red flags and unpredictable weather throughout the session made every tactical decision crucial, with Hamilton advancing from Q1 by mere four-thousandths of a second due to only using tyres for wet conditions.

It was the first time in the V6 turbo-hybrid era, which started in 2014, that Mercedes failed to have at least one car in Q3, showing just how far they’ve fallen from the top.