Mercedes has cast doubt on its ability to fight for victory at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix after a difficult Friday for the team.
Following Kimi Antonelli’s victory at Spa, Mercedes arrived in Hungary aiming for another winning weekend at a track polar opposite to the blast through the Ardennes Forest.
But Friday at the Hungaroring proved more challenging than expected, as neither Mercedes featured in the top four, the lead Silver Arrow of Russell nearly a full second away from the leading times in both sessions.
While high winds impacted drivers on Friday, causing lockups galore, Russell and Antonell seemed to be battling their own car as much as the gusts.
After FP2, Russell admitted Mercedes has work to do in Hungary if it is to maintain its position as leader, but praised the impact of the tight, twisting corners of the circuit on the ability to deploy power, a complete contrast to the struggles of Spa.
“It was quite a strange day out there, I think, for everybody,” Russell said to media.
“Budapest is an amazing track to drive, but they’ve resurfaced half of the track. Super bumpy, a lot of it’s breaking up around the last couple of corners, which is making it quite strange to to drive on.
“Our single lap didn’t look great, our long run looked more competitive. But what I guess we potentially feared with Ferrari seemed to be the case, they looked very, very strong.”
“This weekend is a totally different beast,” he said. “These power units are pretty impressive on this short track, having 350kW coming out of all the corners and the rear tyres are getting blasted.
“We’ve got work to do as a team. Ferrari are a good step ahead of everyone right now.
“For both Kimi and I the car was far from great to be honest and I think there is room to improve. It was really windy today and I think the wind is going to be shifting, so that could be changing a lot.”
Mercedes detail Hungary struggles
Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord detailed the issues facing both Russell and Antonelli on Friday, citing both a lack of grip and balance. There were also positives to take from Friday, however, including long-run pace.
“Lack of grip, lack of balance on a single lap,” Lord said when asked what his drivers were up against.
“Both drivers initially having to wind front-end out of it to find that nice sort of gentle understeer balance you want here.
“But quite inconsistent, quite tricky. Tricky on the new tarmac as well, so no doubt down to just not quite getting the tyres in the right window for that single lap.
“But then on the long runs, looked pretty consistent and pretty competitive versus Ferrari, Verstappen, and the McLarens. So that suggests the car’s in a half-decent window, but we’ve just got to get things right on the single lap.”
“We’ve got a car that’s been competitive at every track. We’ve been fortunate enough to be on pole at each of them so far.”
“I suppose at some point a run like that comes to an end, but we’ll be doing everything we can to make sure it’s not here in Hungary.
“Lots of work to do overnight, bit of head-scratching, and hopefully we find a good chunk of performance going into FP3.”
Lord also detailed another positive, as he confirmed Mercedes has identified and fixed the straight line issue that has hindered Russell badly in recent races.
“Until we’ve done a competitive single lap and been able to compare the two cars – because we’ve not been able to do that today – then you won’t have the final, final definitive answer,” Lord added.
“But yes, we absolutely are confident we’ve found it, we’ve eliminated that, and that it’s no longer hindering or hampering George’s ultimate performance potential.”
Mercedes’ open admission it faces an uphill struggle to match the pace of Ferrari demonstrates its awareness of how challenging Friday was. But as seen in the past, overnight work can transform a weekend, with Mercedes no doubt hoping it will be the case in Hungary.
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