Mercedes ‘missing the two or three tenths to be able to race at the front” – Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff says third and fourth in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix represents a strong result for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, particularly looking at how the cars of both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were after Qualifying on Friday.

Both Hamilton and Russell crashed out of Qualifying and left the mechanics a lot of work to do to repair the cars before Saturday’s final practice session and Sprint race, but despite this, they both were able to come through to score good points for the team.

Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes, says the team are still losing two to three tenths of a second to Scuderia Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing at this stage of the season, but they are heading in the right direction when it comes to their development of the W13.

“We always seem to be in two minds at the end of the races right now,” said Wolff.  “We must accept P3 and P4 today. And when you think we had two cars in pieces on Friday afternoon, that’s a strong result.

“But we are missing the two or three tenths to be able to race at the front. We have glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel with the car – then it disappears again, and we need to get on top of that.

“Today, over a race stint, we looked more competitive than yesterday. But we had two drivers needing to put in strong recovery drives, after incidents in the Sprint and in the opening laps.

“It was good to see Charles [Leclerc] on the top step. He’s had a lot of bad luck, and it looks like the fight is on at the front. Now we need to work on the car to close the gap to the teams ahead, then see how we can get in the mix.”

“We felt that George’s penalty for the incident with Sergio was harsh” – Andrew Shovlin

Andrew Shovlin, the Track Engineering Director at Mercedes, says there is some satisfaction for the team to finish third and fourth, although he does not believe Russell’s early contact with Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez merited a penalty.

Russell was handed a five second time penalty for spinning the Mexican around at turn four on lap one, and despite that and a broken front wing that required a change, he was able to climb back up through the field.

Shovlin says the team are encouraged by the pace shown in Austria, and they can be confident heading to the Circuit Paul Ricard that they can edge even closer to the leading teams at a track he believes will suit Mercedes well.

“It’s been a very tough weekend in the garage but very satisfying to come away with third and fourth positions,” said Shovlin.  “We felt that George’s penalty for the incident with Sergio was harsh.

“He was up on the apex kerb and left more than enough room. We had to change the front wing after the contact, so it made for a very long stop. He had to pass through the field twice but raced superbly and maximised the opportunity.

“Similarly, Lewis had rather a lot to do in the first stint due to his start position. Once he was through the midfield cars he had good pace but by then the gap to Charles and Max was way too big to chase so we just focused on bringing the car home.

“This hasn’t been a track that has suited us in recent years. Despite lacking a little pace to Ferrari and Red Bull, we’re encouraged by the fact we’re moving in the right direction and have more to come in the next few races.

“We have a busy few days ahead at the factory to recover the situation on car parts, this weekend has not been great in that regard! But we’ll pull that back in time for Paul Ricard and are looking forward to a track that should suit the car.”

George Russell ended fourth despite a penalty for colliding with Sergio Pérez – Credit: Steve Etherington