Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has rubbished speculation around a so-called “crisis meeting” that took place between the Formula 1 Belgian and Hungarian Grands Prix.
The German marque has, by its own admission, struggled during the European leg of this year’s campaign, punctuated only by George Russell’s victory in Canada.
Fortunes were somewhat reversed at the Hungaroring, with Russell claiming third after a fraught late battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
The Briton also missed out on pole position by a fraction, the team having ditched its rear suspension upgrade in favour of its original design.
After the previous weekend at Spa, in which the W16 was woefully off the pace, Russell alluded to a “big sit-down” with the team between the two rounds.
Speaking to Sky Sports Germany, Wolff refuted that the meeting was anything other than routine, and the media’s interpretation that it was more significant.
“That’s always such nonsense – this talk of a ‘crisis meeting,'” the Austrian said.
“We have meetings every week to assess where the car stands and what we can improve.
“And one of those meetings was last week, exactly as planned, with the drivers. We do that regularly, every few months.
“That was the ‘big’ meeting. And it was very interesting.”
Russell not getting ‘carried away’ with newfound Mercedes pace at Hungary
It appears that confining the W16’s rear suspension upgrade to “the bin”, as Wolff said, has paid dividends.
The car was by far more competitive under Russell’s control in Hungary, evidenced by both his one-lap and race pace.
But the race weekend in Hungary did see a slightly topsy-turvy order, with some competitive cars struggling, allowing teams lower down the order to capitalise.
Max Verstappen had a downturn in performance from his Red Bull in ninth, while Aston Martin improved vastly to see its cars finish fifth and seventh respectively.
This led Russell to exercise his caution as to whether Mercedes is fully back on track heading into the remaining 10 rounds.
“We reverted on some of the items we brought,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“Early in the season we brought a new rear suspension that clearly wasn’t performing as we’d have hoped.
“But it was also a pretty unique weekend. You see the results by McLaren, and it was quite an unusual finishing order from P3 down.
“Obviously, Max was quite out of position. The Astons had a really strong race weekend as well. So, I don’t think we should get carried away with the result.
“But, clearly, in terms of pace, it was our best race of the season bar Canada.”
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