Mercedes surprised by Red Bull’s “odd” F1 wing choice in Hungary

After performing well at the Monaco Grand Prix, Red Bull had expected to be the team to beat at the Hungaroring - a circuit which is nicknamed ‘Monaco without the barriers’.

Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position as Mercedes locked out the front row for the first time since the Portuguese Grand Prix. 

Reflecting on last weekend, Shovlin, who is Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, expected Red Bull to fare better in Hungary.

“Yes, because we thought this was a circuit that should suit them,” “The other thing that always worries us when we come to a max downforce circuit is that we’re frequently running around on our max downforce wing, and then they bring it out for the Monacos and this place. 

“But maybe they couldn’t balance that, they went away from it on Saturday and for us, it seems odd that you would ever run anything other than your biggest rear wing here. 

“We don’t profess to know why they are taking decisions on that car, but it could be that they were just struggling to get enough front-end on it on the big wing so they dropped down to the smaller one.”

Shovlin admitted that Mercedes doesn’t fully understand why it performed so well.

“That’s something we need to look at over the next few days,” Shovlin added. “We’re down to pretty small developments now to be honest, but we did have the update kit in Silverstone and that does look like its given us some useful performance. 

“But then the car was working well here with where it was maintaining its tyre temperatures and we had quite a nice balance with it. To be honest, we’re surprised by it ourselves. It’s a pleasant surprise, by we’re surprised to have had that margin to pole for instance.”