Mercedes expected to be “much more competitive” in Germany

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff admits his side was expecting to be “much more competitive” at the German Grand Prix.

Ferrari looked the team to beat after practice but a disastrous reliability meltdown in qualifying enabled Mercedes to capitalise, with an unwell Lewis Hamilton beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and teammate Valtteri Bottas to his fourth pole position of 2019 by over three-tenths.

The German manufacturer introduced a significant aerodynamic upgrade - including a cooling update to help combat its overheating weakness - for the Hockenheim round, but Wolff conceded Mercedes anticipated to be much closer to Ferrari’s level of performance.

“I think we were expecting to be much more competitive this weekend,” Wolff said.

“We brought a very solid upgrade package onto the car, we knew that the straight-line speed would go against us here at Hockenheim, but sector three is similar to Barcelona and the overheating issue should have been something that we should have stamped out, and we didn’t all weekend.

"Fundamentally we are not happy with our own performance and it could have looked much different if Ferrari had finished qualifying.”

Asked if Mercedes understands why it did not perform as well as expected, Wolff replied: “No it’s not understood.

"I think we see that the upgrade package has delivered but there’s so many factors to consider with the specific circuit layout, the tarmac, the heat and whether we have completely understood how to tune the car for the aerodynamic upgrade.

“So there are many variables we need to find out and analyse before going to Budapest.”

Rain and potential thunderstorms are forecast in Hockenheim on Sunday, but Wolff labelled Verstappen and Red Bull as the biggest threat to the team’s hopes of landing another home victory.

"I think Max the Red Bulls generally have shown great race pace and are handling the tyres well and they are definitely a threat for the race,” Wolff said.