Mercedes once again had a mixed-bag qualifying like last year in Hungary. While Lewis Hamilton was fighting at the sharp end in Q3, George Russell was unlucky to bow out in Q1, as other drivers registered quicker times than him. Toto Wolff felt quite disappointed, deeming it a “total underperformance” from the entire team, given they locked out the front row last time in Silverstone. Now, former F1 champion Damon Hill has quipped about the Mercedes boss’ remark.
Wolff stated after qualifying in Budapest, “That was a total underperformance from literally everybody involved here. Losing a car in Q1 is just not on and [for the] driver-team combination, it just shouldn’t happen and at the end we just didn’t have the pace. [A] very, very disappointing day”.
In response to Wolff’s claims, Hill Tweeted, “I suppose if everyone is to blame, then there is no blame?”. The 1996 champion was perhaps talking about the “no blame” culture that Mercedes has developed over the years. However, herein Wolff’s comments seem quite spot on, given what transpired with Russell’s final Q1 run.
I suppose if everyone is to blame, then there is no blame? #f1
— Damon Hill (@HillF1) July 21, 2024
The rain was looming large at the Hungaroring toward the final minutes of Q1. Thus, all drivers were uncertain whether they could find enough of an improvement from their initial lap times. Mercedes perhaps did not fuel Russell’s car enough to keep pushing till the chequered flag came out.
This cost the #63 driver massively as he dropped down the timing charts with several other drivers finding improvements on their final push laps with the rain holding out. As a result, Russell will have to start the Hungarian GP from P17, which almost rules him out of podium contention.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is also starting in P5 with the McLarens locking out the front row. So, Mercedes have a massive task at hand to recover a good result in Budapest, given McLaren seem like the clear front-runner.
Russell reflects on a miserable Hungarian GP qualifying
Russell faced a Q1 elimination for the first time since last year in Hungary itself. After taking pole two years ago, the 26-year-old has not had the best of luck in Budapest. This year too, he will have to make a mammoth effort to recover into the points and probably pray for some chaos in the top 10 to get an outside chance of a podium.
However, Russell highlighted after qualifying that he should not have been in the compromising situation in the first place. The Briton stated, “We didn’t do a good enough job today. I was unable to put a lap together earlier in Q1 and that had left us vulnerable near the cut-off”.
Tough Qualifying for us in Budapest. P5 for Lewis and P17 for George.
Long race tomorrow though and we’ll be fighting hard to move forward. pic.twitter.com/17Um8zkwic
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 20, 2024
Russell also added, “We shouldn’t have been in that position though in the first place and that’s on me. We will go through it tonight to understand what happened, what went wrong, and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again”.
Now, Mercedes need to figure out the optimum strategy for Russell with the weather conditions for the Grand Prix being quite hot. Hamilton also addressed the same and stated that they will have to wait and watch despite their long-run pace being “solid”.
