Mercedes had a quicker car than McLaren at the Hungarian Grand Prix but failed to capitalize on it, according to Toto Wolff.
Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole position but slipped to fourth in the race, behind Lando Norris in second and Sergio Perez in third. George Russell had a very different race as he recovered from starting 18th to finish sixth, and Wolff believes the way that Mercedes handled its tires during a hot race at the Hungaroring proved the wrong way to try and beat Norris to second.
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“I think we had the second quickest car but the result doesn’t show it,” Wolff said. “In theory we had the second quickest car and we didn’t monetize on it, and that’s always disappointing. We have got to find out how we could have done that better.
“You can see that George came to the front from a long way down and beating the Aston Martins and Ferraris. So we just need to analyze that.
“We were too careful in bringing the tires in. After the stops we lost a lot of time. It paid off towards the end of the stint, because we were miles quicker than everybody else but it’s always a balance and I believe the balance was a little bit too much in terms of bringing them in.
“To strike that balance right is really difficult, because you can see that if you are hammering them like Lando did or Oscar (Piastri) did or also Checo did, at the end you are just falling off massively. So bringing them in when you can is definitely advantageous, but probably we have been too conservative in the way we bring them in and we lost too much time at the beginning.”
And Wolff says it wasn’t just the final stint where both Hamilton and Russell appeared quickest that Mercedes showed strong pace in, although the advantage held by Max Verstappen means such small issues hold less significance to the team principal.
“You have seen it in the second stint as well, where we lost a lot of time in the beginning and then gained massive chunks back at the end. But that’s a balance and we need to look at striking that balance right.
“As surprising as it sounds, in terms of pace it was quick in terms of the rest of the world. In the F2 pack it was quick. The F1 car won by 34 seconds. But in a way it is irrelevant. We need to calculate it and say what can we do better at the next race and then optimize from there.
“We can talk each other up and say we could have been or would have been second, but in a way that is irrelevant because you have a car in front that is 34 seconds clear and probably he was cruising for a long time. That’s the bitter reality.
“But as I said before, it is a meritocracy and as long as you are moving within the regulations then you have overall just done a better job and we need to acknowledge that.”