Toto Wolff labels Hungary F1 qualifying "total underperformance" from Mercedes
“That was a total underperformance from literally everybody involved."
Toto Wolff was unimpressed with how Mercedes tackled qualifying at the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, describing it as a “total underperformance from literally everybody involved”.
Mercedes saw George Russell knocked out in Q1 as one of the early high-profile casualties in qualifying at the Hungaroring.
While Russell struggled initially for pace, he wasn’t on the track at the end of the session as the track ramped up.
On the other side of the garage, Lewis Hamilton scraped into Q2 before securing fifth on the grid for Sunday’s race.
However, Wolff was clearly annoyed with his team after qualifying in Hungary.
“That was a total underperformance from literally everybody involved,” he told Sky. “Losing a car in Q1 is just not on.
“Driver-team combination shouldn’t happen. At the end we just didn’t have the pace. Very, very disappointing day.”
The main issue came with how much fuel Russell had in his car at the end of the session.
Russell was one of the first drivers out on track after the red flag but returned to the pit lane.
That meant he and the two Alpines were the only cars not out on track at the end of Q1.
Explaining what happened with Russell, Wolff explained there was some miscommunication on the run plan for Q1.
“I think he should have had the first lap in where Lewis went P1,” Wolff added. “He said that was when he probably took it too easy.
“The other one, we put too little fuel in but it was a different run plan. Fast-slow-fast and he decided to do three fast laps. But overall, I think it’s 70 percent the team’s mistake not fueling one lap more.”
On Hamilton’s qualifying, he added: “We probably could have been two-tenths off but we were going up and down with tyre temperatures and it was tricky to find that middle ground to give him a car that had grip.”
