Mercedes insist it was “small mistakes” and “small errors” that led to their Dutch Grand Prix woes with the team some 40s down on the podium.
Winning three times in four races, Mercedes went into Formula 1’s summer break as the team on the up and up. But it came to nought in Zandvoort.
Mercedes: Small mistakes, small errors …
Although George Russell lined up P4 to Lewis Hamilton’s 11th, the former wasn’t able to challenge for the podium as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc launched his long-range attack while Oscar Piastri also bounced back on the Sunday.
The eventual result was Russell P7 but 44s down while Hamilton went from 11th to eight but five seconds behind his team-mate.
It was the team’s worst performance in months, reminiscent of their early-season unpredictable form.
But tech boss James Allison insists: “It won’t be as simple as, ‘oh, the track doesn’t suit the car’. Whether or not you have a good weekend is dependent on a huge number of things.
“And all of them have to be pretty much near dead on right to get what you call the true pace of the car out. And in the run-up to the shutdown, we managed to hit our stride pretty much at every track.
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