Toto Wolff has downplayed McLaren’s shock win at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix after Mercedes was thoroughly beaten on pace.
Mercedes never truly looked like contenders for victory in Hungary, struggling for pace from Friday and unable to reel in the leaders.
Ferrari looked to have the edge on Mercedes, before McLaren rose to the fore in qualifying, relegating Antonelli to fourth and Russell to a distant seventh.
Race day did not see a reversal in fortune, Russell hindered by his anti stall system, sending him falling down the order at the start and forced to fight back through the field.
Antonelli used strategy to good effect to lead the race for a time, but was forced to settle for third at the chequered flag behind the dominant Lando Norris and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
The pace deficit between Norris and Antonelli was over 18 seconds at the end of the race, but Wolff played down the significance of McLaren’s dominance at the Hungaroring.
“When you ask the artificial intelligence who’s the favourite in Budapest, the artificial intelligence is going to say McLaren, because they were the dominant team here in the last few years. I think it was one and two and something like this last year,” he said.
“So, definitely, it is one of the good tracks for them, and not very good for us. So, we need to be careful not to swing from everyone is suddenly competitive to a team is suddenly not competitive.”
McLaren brought a raft of upgrades to the MCL40, including a new floor, while Mercedes is still racing its Canada-spec car, a fact that Wolff believes exaggerates McLaren’s advantage in Hungary.
So, I think they’ve definitely done a step. They’re in the fight. We haven’t brought an upgrade for some time, and you can see that this is going to be a development fight also going forward.”
Toto Wolff analyses Mercedes missteps in Hungary
Wolff then revealed he believes Mercedes should have pitted under the Virtual Safety Car, believing it could have improved Antonelli’s finishing position.
“Looking back, the prevailing feeling is that we should have done, “he added. “We should have done better. It is from the team’s side.
“We were unlucky with the VSC again. That could have been a P2. If we had a fault-free weekend, I think we would have fought for the victory or at least two cars on the podium.
“You can’t fault the drivers. Kimi’s defence on the hard against Lewis on the soft was brilliant, brilliant driving, and the same with George. I think he cleared 10 cars at the beginning through the traffic when we knew it was going to be very difficult.”
Wolff’s attempts to minimise the significance of McLaren’s victory in Hungary will only be proven one way or the other when F1 returns to Zandvoort.
But for Wolff to admit McLaren are now in the fight for victory indicates he and Mercedes are wary of a new foe in the second half of the season.
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