Lewis Hamilton has said Ferrari's difficult Austrian Grand Prix was a "reality check" after his popular win in Spain two weeks ago.
Hamilton's first Ferrari victory in Barcelona raised excitement he and the red team were back in the title picture.
It was the first non-Mercedes win of the season, but normality resumed on Sunday in Austria.
Ferrari had looked good in qualifying, with Hamilton qualifying third behind teammate Charles Leclerc, who started on the front row alongside Mercedes driver George Russell.
Any hopes of a win faded immediately at the start as Russell disappeared into the distance and Ferrari dropped backwards -- Hamilton finished fifth, while Leclerc laboured to eighth.
Hamilton said the dramatic change in fortunes from the last race to this one was difficult to understand.
"I think it's more of a reality check," Hamilton said when asked if the performance was track specific. "We don't know why we were so competitive on Sunday in Barcelona. That's a very strong track for me, I chose a strategy that from experience I knew would work, with the deg[radation] that we had it was like 2021.
"But then today I think we were hit more with reality which is we do still have a good car but we are down compared to Mercedes just on pace, they just are quicker and we have to keep developing.
"It doesn't mean we can't close that gap [but] that one win doesn't mean we are going to be beating them all the time, it's the opposite, we've got a lot of work to do to try. We still have to just continue to add performance to the car, particularly power is where we're going to keep working."
Ferrari introduced an engine upgrade in Austria in a bid to try and fix some or all of that power deficit to Mercedes.
Ferrari was granted extra leeway in engine development under F1's catch-up mechanism, known as ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities), but the team has downplayed how quickly that might be able to make a major difference.
Mercedes was also granted some leeway under ADUO, as Red Bull's internal combustion engine was deemed to be the benchmark engine, but not as much as Ferrari.
ADUO focuses specifically on the performance of the internal combustion engine rather than the overall performance of the car and its hybrid power unit.
Hamilton and Ferrari has been consistent this season in suggesting it has the strongest car through corners and races so far this season having supported the theory that its biggest deficit comes from straight-line speed.