Following a mixed Hungarian GP, Mercedes F1 and Wolff eye significant strides forward.
Toto Wolff is pleased that Mercedes F1, the team he manages, secured a fifth consecutive podium. The Austrian praised Lewis Hamilton’s 200th podium, while George Russell finished eighth.
“It’s good to finish on the podium, for our fifth consecutive race, in tough, hot conditions that our car dislikes. We were able to maximize the result with Lewis, which is encouraging,” said Wolff.
“Seeing Lewis achieve his 200th F1 podium, and his 151st with our team, was great. Confidence is important, in the car and in himself. During the race, we still have moments of hesitation and questioning, and to progress on this, we need to develop the car and perform better.”
Wolff described the challenge Russell faced: “Saturday’s setback forced George to fight through the pack. He managed to recover well from where he started. It was a tough race for him with a lot of traffic in his pit stop window for much of the afternoon.”
“Without that, he might have gained another position, but it was still a solid effort. We are now heading to Spa where conditions will likely be cooler, and I hope they will suit us a bit better.”
“The McLarens were very strong this Sunday and out of our reach in these hot conditions. Congratulations to them and to Oscar; they deserved today’s win. They are the strongest team against Red Bull. We are unfortunately too far behind, but they deserve their victory.”
An impossible podium “without incident”
Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director, congratulated McLaren on their one-two finish. He acknowledged that, fairly, the podium was out of reach: “Firstly, hats off to McLaren and to Oscar. Achieving a double is a very tough result to secure, and they are setting a high bar right now.”
“It was great to see Lewis on the podium. Moving from fifth to third place was a good result, as we had to stay ahead of Verstappen to achieve it. We were able to maximize the result with him because, without incident, we simply didn’t have the pace to compete with McLaren.”
“With George, we qualified far from our normal position on Saturday. This deprived him of the chance to compete for much more than minor points positions. He made a good recovery, nearly catching Perez’s Red Bull, but we will take lessons from the qualifying and aim to do better in the future.”
“We now turn to Spa. We still have work to do to be at the front every weekend, but we are moving in the right direction. The energy and enthusiasm in the team are palpable. We have a few days to prepare; it will be interesting to see how the W15 responds to the cooler conditions than what we experienced here in Hungary this weekend.”
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Mercedes F1 Seeks Growth Amid Hesitations Mercedes F1 Seeks Growth Amid Hesitations
