Rosberg fears for Mercedes: 'The problem is they don't get it'

Mercedes had hoped for a better start to the Formula 1 season than a year ago, but the opening weekend in Bahrain ended in disappointment for the German team. Former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg fears the gap with Red Bull Racing is even greater than was seen during the race.

Given Mercedes' performance last year, the result in Bahrain still seemed not too bad, but Toto Wolff spoke afterwards of one of his worst days in racing. Like his former team boss, Rosberg was dismayed by the German stable's performance.

The 2016 World Champion noted that the gap to Red Bull would have been even bigger had Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez not been instructed to be careful with their tyres. "They were 50 seconds behind Verstappen, who didn't give everything. That would have been 60 seconds otherwise, so a second per lap. That is intense," he said to the German edition of Sky Sports.

The 37-year-old German thinks his former team will have to find a "magic bullet" to still put themselves in the fray, but fears that will be difficult as Mercedes still does not seem to understand why the current concept is not working. "They need to find a magic bullet and make big progress quickly, but they don't really get it themselves and that's the difficult thing," Rosberg added.