The team principal of Mercedes, Toto Wolff was left raging at his team following qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, describing it as “a total underperformance from literally everyone”.
George Russell will start the race in P17 after the team failed to give him enough fuel to complete a crucial late lap in Q1 as the track dried out following rain at the Hungaroring, while Lewis Hamilton struggled as temperatures rose later in the session and will start P5.
Mercedes have won the last two races, but McLaren’s Lando Norris is favourite for victory in Budapest after qualifying alongside team-mate Oscar Piastri on the front row, more than six tenths quicker than Hamilton could manage.
“That was a total underperformance from literally everybody involved here,” Wolff fumed on Sky Sports F1.
“Losing a car in Q1 is just not on… driver-team combination, it shouldn’t happen.
“And at the end we just didn’t have the pace. A very, very disappointing day.”
Wolff believes Hamilton, who struggled for grip as the track warmed up, should have been within two tenths of Norris’ pole lap but saved his harshest criticism for how the team handled Russell in Q1.
Russell was more than a second slower than Hamilton after their early flying laps before the session was red-flagged when Sergio Perez crashed and rain started to fall.
Mercedes sent Russell out early when Q1 resumed, but he didn’t have enough fuel to complete four laps on a drying track and his time was bettered by a flurry of other drivers in the dying stages.
“[Russell] should have had the first lap in when Lewis went P1. He said that was probably taking it too easy,” added Wolff.
“Then the other one was we put a lap of fuel too little in, but it was a different run plan. It was a fast-slow-fast and he decided to do three fast laps.
“Overall it’s 70 per cent the team’s mistake on not fuelling one lap more.”
Russell initially shouldered the blame for the shock Q1 exit, insisting “that one was on me” on team radio and he later conceded that his initial laps had not been good enough.
But he expressed anger towards his team for the fuelling error that will see him struggle to even get into the points on Sunday at a track where overtaking is difficult.
“I was on track when it was wettest and when it was dry I had no fuel,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“It was a disaster from both aspects. We should have got through comfortably on that last lap, but we had no fuel. That was on me for being in the position in the first place.
“It was not our usual standard, for sure. I need to understand what happened on my side at the beginning, but having enough fuel for the whole session is a fundamental.
“As a team we made a big error.”
Meanwhile Hamilton, who won in damp conditions at Silverstone two weeks ago, remains frustrated by the underperformance of the Mercedes when temperatures are high.
The seven-time world champion refused to take comfort from qualifying on the third row saying: “We came to try and be at the front and you can never be satisfied.
“I think we did an ok job and I think we’ve done everything we could. We got the car in a relatively decent place, but when it gets hot we’re just not particularly fast.
“When the session started it was much cooler and we were rapid. As soon as the temperature picked up, others got faster and we got slower – or didn’t get any faster at least.”
