Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the team had “very open discussions” in the wake of its disastrous performance at last weekend’s German Grand Prix.
Mercedes controlled the early stages of the race at Hockenheim, running 1-2, but Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas both made costly mistakes in the tricky conditions.
Hamilton clipped the wall at the penultimate corner, sustained a time penalty, and later spun through Turn 1 en route to ninth position.
Bottas dropped to fourth but was still in contention for a podium result when he crashed out at Turn 1 in the closing stages.
It meant Mercedes left its home grand prix with just two points, its worst return since last year’s Austrian Grand Prix.
“We had a painful Sunday in Hockenheim,” said Wolff. “We made mistakes, took the wrong decisions and left Germany with only two points.
“On Sunday, we were united in our pain; on Monday, we were united in our determination to turn our weaknesses into strengths.
“We had a number of very open discussions about what went wrong and what steps we need to take to improve.
“I believe that one of the core strengths of our team is the way we handle defeat.
“We accept responsibility for mistakes so that we can learn and improve – and we will come back stronger from this.
“The positive is that the next race is only a few days away and that we have the chance to redeem ourselves in Budapest this weekend.”
Mercedes has nonetheless still won nine of this year’s 11 grands prix, and holds a 148-point advantage over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.
“In recent years, the Hungaroring has been a challenging circuit for us – but we managed to win there last year and there are a number of reasons to believe our car could be more competitive there this year than in recent seasons,” said Wolff.
“Looking at our competition, Ferrari have been very strong on short circuits this year and we expect them to be competitive again in Budapest; Red Bull, too, have won two of the past three races with Max [Verstappen].
“But we haven't lost sight of the fact that we have come out on top in nine of the 11 races so far this year. And we are determined to fight tooth and nail this weekend to achieve another strong result.”
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