Mercedes staff principal Toto Wolff admitted the staff let George Russell down on the Hungarian Grand Prix after a start-line challenge dropped the Briton to the again of the sector, whereas praising championship chief Andrea Kimi Antonelli for an additional composed podium end.
Antonelli delivered one other robust efficiency on the Hungaroring to complete third after Mercedes executed an aggressive technique that briefly put the Italian into second place. The staff initially tried to finish the race with a one-stop technique earlier than altering course as tyre degradation turned too extreme.
The change to a two-stop technique proved decisive, leaving Antonelli on brisker tyres than a lot of his rivals and permitting him to keep away from pitting throughout the late Digital Security Automotive interval. He held off a charging Lewis Hamilton within the closing laps to safe one other podium end and prolong his lead within the Drivers’ Championship.
On the opposite aspect of the Mercedes storage, Russell’s afternoon unraveled earlier than the primary nook. An anti-stall challenge at the beginning dropped him from the entrance of the grid to 18th place, leaving him with little selection however to combat again by the sector. The Briton ultimately recovered to seventh, limiting the harm within the championship however slipping 59 factors behind his teammate heading into the summer time break.
Wolff accepted full duty for Russell’s troublesome afternoon.
“Each drivers put in robust races in the present day. Kimi did effectively to get onto the rostrum and P3 and George did brilliantly to combat again after the opening lap.”
“His drawback at the beginning was absolutely on us as a staff and it is not ok.”
The Mercedes boss admitted Russell has endured too many reliability-related setbacks this season and insisted the staff is working laborious to get rid of the recurring issues.
“He has suffered too many of those issues; we’re doing the whole lot we are able to to get on high of them, however it’s sadly one other challenge that has price him once more in the present day.”
Wolff additionally acknowledged that Mercedes benefited from the timing of the race’s late Digital Security Automotive, though he praised Antonelli for defending strongly in opposition to Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton after the restart.
“We almost acquired very unfortunate with one more ill-timed Digital Security Automotive, however Kimi defended effectively to carry off Lewis (Hamilton).”
“It was good harm limitation after a troublesome day yesterday.”
Regardless of Russell’s disappointing race and the challenges encountered all through the weekend, Wolff believes Mercedes stays in a robust place heading into System 1’s summer time shutdown.
“We go into the summer time shutdown with a factors hole in each championships that we’d have taken at the beginning of the season.”
Whereas inspired by Mercedes’ championship place, the Austrian burdened that the staff can’t afford to face nonetheless if it needs to transform its present benefit into title success.
“That’s good however we all know we have to maintain pushing after the break, maintain creating and enhance our reliability.”
“That would be the key if we’re to not solely combat for each championships however win them.”
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