While Mercedes remains unbeaten in grands prix, it has another less enviable streak in Formula 1 this year. In every grand prix so far this year, poor starts have meant that it's been beaten to the first corner from pole position every time.

In Miami, championship leader Kimi Antonelli again did not make a perfect start from the front, as he slipped behind the ever fast-starting Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen before snatching a brake and running wide at Turn 1.

Coming just a day after another poor launch in the Miami sprint cost Antonelli badly, his Mercedes squad concedes the situation is now something it desperately needs to tidy up.

Because while it has managed to make strong recoveries to fight back from the loss of positions early on, partly thanks to the yo-yo style of racing that keeps the pack together early on, it understands that if overtaking becomes harder as the rules bed down and cars develop then fighting back so readily may not be possible.

This is why Mercedes boss Toto Wolff told Sky’s TV cameras in Miami that the start situation was “unacceptable” – a point he reiterated in the paddock later on.

“It's just not good enough,” he said. “We're not doing a good enough job in giving them [the drivers] a tool in their hands, whether it's clutch or grip estimates.

“We are the only ones who, let's say, don't get that right now for a few races. And we just have to dig even deeper to try to understand how we can fix that, because the gaps are not big enough to cruise into the sunset. Therefore you can’t be missing starts.”

What's going wrong

While from the outside it seems that Mercedes’ poor getaways are a constant theme, the trigger points each time have been different.

In Australia, both George Russell and Antonelli on the front row were impacted by the consequence of not having done proper burn outs on the formation lap because they hit their recharge limits.

At the following race in China, Antonelli got his formation lap battery strategy wrong – leaving his pack empty. He also admitted he became too preoccupied with defending from the Ferraris as he lost his pole advantage.

In Japan, Antonelli was greedy with his clutch release and triggered loads of wheelspin from pole, while Russell was impacted by the slow release of a trail braking force – something that is as much influenced by the team as the driver.

Despite a lot of homework done at Mercedes' Brackley base to improve things during the April break, there was no noticeable step forward in Miami.

In the sprint, Antonelli dropped from a front row slot alongside pole position man Lando Norris to fourth at the first corner and, after starting from pole for Sunday's grand prix, Antonelli was slow away and overtaken by a Ferrari and a Red Bull.

Wolff was quick to shoulder responsibility for these poor starts on the team – although without going into too much detail.

While this suggests a probable technical problem on the car, the reality of Antonelli’s poor getaways in Miami was more about the execution than anything mechanical.

As part of normal F1 process, every driver is given a clutch release target to hit off the line based on a teams’ best prediction of how much grip there will be.

Mercedes duly gave Antonelli a target to hit with his clutch paddle, which he delivered on, but the real grip was out of kilter with what the team expected.

There was less grip than thought, and the too-ambitious target resulted in wheelspin based on how much power Antonelli unleashed.

It is understood that Mercedes got its target wrong as a consequence of it not having the perfect amount of information beforehand.  

All the team’s practice starts had been on the pole position side of the grid, while Antonelli started the sprint from the dirty side.

Things were also not helped by Antonelli missing the practice starts at the conclusion of practice because he was stranded in the garage with a power unit problem.

On race day, things for both Antonelli and Russell were not as bad as they had been before, but they were still not at the level they ultimately need to be.

As Antonelli remarked on Sunday night: “[It was] a little bit better. But still it’s not acceptable.”

And while the team knows it needs to do a better job, Antonelli himself thinks there is progress needed on his side too.

“I’m still a little bit inconsistent, especially on clutch drop,” he added.

“I still don’t have that confidence, being consistent with that. I still have a bit of uncertainty, so it’s a big point that needs to be improved.”

Images courtesy of Craig Evans / Spacesuit Media