Mercedes Calls Team Meeting as Performance Woes Persist
Russell and Team Aim to Solve Decline Ahead of Hungarian GP
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has called critical meetings ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix to address a sharp drop in performance that has plagued its drivers, George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, in recent races. The team, once a consistent podium threat, is grappling with puzzling handling issues, leaving both drivers frustrated and off the pace.
In the wake of a strong Canadian Grand Prix victory by George Russell just three races ago, the team’s form has nosedived. Russell hasn’t finished higher than fifth in the subsequent events, a position he also secured at the Belgian Grand Prix over the weekend. However, his result came with an alarming 35-second gap to winner Oscar Piastri and a narrow five-second buffer over Alex Albon’s resurgent Williams in sixth place.
Even the traditionally favorable cooler conditions at Spa-Francorchamps failed to play to Mercedes’ strengths, leaving the car trailing competitors.
“We need to really understand what is going on and why we’ve taken such a step backwards,” Russell remarked after Sunday’s race. “These conditions today, you would argue, are ideal for us and our car — and once again, it’s been the worst performance of the season. So, yeah, we’re going to have a big sit-down this week and try to figure it out.”
Driver Frustrations Boil Over
Russell elaborated on the car’s handling issues, citing an unsettling loss of rear stability, which he said has made the W14 significantly harder to drive compared to earlier in the season.
“Definitely the car isn’t feeling as nice to drive at the moment as it once did,” he noted. “Lacking rear stability, whereas at the start of the year it was much better. I think Kimi and I are collectively making more mistakes because the car is more challenging to drive.
As I say, it may be as simple as reverting back some of the changes we’ve made. But in Formula 1, it’s never that simple.”
Among the suspected factors contributing to Mercedes’ struggles is a technical directive (TD) issued during the Spanish Grand Prix that tightened regulations around the allowable flexing of front wings. Teams were forced to redesign this component, potentially altering car balance across different cornering speeds.
“Obviously, we had the change of the front wing in Barcelona,” Russell explained. “We then went in a slightly different direction afterward to sort of tackle the issue of the change of front wing. And clearly, since that point, we’ve taken a big step backwards.”
Leadership and Engineering Admit Complexity
While Russell believes the front wing’s redesign may be central to the dip in performance, Mercedes’ Head of Trackside Engineering, Andrew Shovlin, thinks the problem is more nuanced.
“That’s what we need to understand,” said Shovlin. “What we had early on in the year was a car that was working well at pretty much every circuit. We were generally fighting for the second row of the grid, if not the front row.
It’s probably true for anyone that the [Spain] TD won’t improve stability, but this wing was on the car in Montreal and it was fine. The fact is, other people are able to balance their cars a bit better.”
Shovlin admitted the team has made a range of design and setup changes across the last few races, which will be reviewed in detail as part of the upcoming meetings.
“There’s no doubt a solution in there for us, but as I said, we’re just looking at all the steps that we’ve taken with the car design over the last number of races. It isn’t just the front wing that’s changed, and I’m sure there’s more that we can learn.”
According to Shovlin, the team’s effort will now focus on pinpointing the cause of the car’s instability under braking and corner entry — a critical flaw preventing the drivers from unlocking its full potential.
“Yes, that TD on the front wing might take you in the wrong direction,” acknowledged Shovlin, “but the fact is when we’ve dropped aero balance out of the car, the instability is still there.”
Urgency Ahead of Budapest
With the Hungarian Grand Prix looming just days away, Mercedes is weighing its options for immediate fixes.
“It’s definitely possible for us to look at changing aspects of the car for Budapest,” Shovlin noted. “How deep we go will depend on what parts we’ve got around us.
We’ve got a meeting with the drivers to go through some of what we’ve done over the year to try and make sure that our efforts are focused on the right things, not just changing things for the sake of it.”
The Road Ahead
Russell, Antonelli, and the Mercedes team face mounting pressure as they strive to recapture their mid-season form. The upcoming Grand Prix at the technical and twisty Hungaroring will be a crucial test — not just for the car, but for the team’s ability to adapt and claw back lost ground in a tightly contested championship.
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