Mercedes disgusted by Verstappen “in a league of his own”

Roller coasters, Mercedes love it. Finally, she rather endures them. On a positive dynamic before the summer break – 6 consecutive Grands Prix on the podium and a pole in Hungary – the Silver Arrows fell from high in Belgium. Far, far from the score at Spa-Francorchamps, they have fallen back into their failings at the start of the season. Unable to explain its lack of performance on the Walloon track, the German team conceded more than 1″8 on Verstappen in qualifying. In the race, George Russell, the only surviving Mercedes driver, finished 30 seconds behind the Dutch world champion.

If hopes of victory quickly evaporated at Spa, Toto wolff especially recognized the superiority of Max Verstappen this season. “I don’t think we can be satisfied with that. When you see Verstappen being in a league of his own, that's something we have to solve, how we can improve our car. The gap is simply too big. » Far from the great optimistic speeches made after the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Austrian director simply conceded that the Mercedes was not up to standard. “I think that’s just reality. We have to accept that the car is very difficult to drive, that it doesn't have the pace over a single lap. We have to get out of this situation. »

Mercedes must not “fluctuating too much between depression and mania”

Mercedes faces a paradox: if the car produces random performances from weekend to weekend, at least one car has finished in the top 4 at every Grand Prix since the start of the season. The W13 seems to be very sensitive to the nature of the tracks.

Toto Wolff wants the Silver Arrows to find better form in the Netherlands, on a track close to that of the Hungaroring, where Russell took pole. “I hope that a circuit [like Zandvoort] would suit us better, that we would be more competitive, but we must not oscillate too much between depression and mania. Today there would be every reason to be depressed. In Hungary we were like 'yes absolutely, we're going to win a race'. We will never give up. » On Max Verstappen's land, Mercedes would like to play spoilsport during the Dutch Grand Prix. A story of revenge... 

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