Toto Wolff slams Mercedes after ‘total underperformance from everybody involved’

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was far from pleased after Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, feeling standards had not been met across the board.

Light rain leading up to and during Q1 made for tricky conditions at the Hungaroring and shifting levels of grip, with George Russell losing out in a major way as he went from pole last time out at Silverstone to elimination in Q1 in Hungary.

Toto Wolff criticises Mercedes ‘underperformance’

Lewis Hamilton would make it to Q3 and claimed P5 on the grid, but when asked by Sky F1 whether this at least made it an okay day at the office for Mercedes , Wolff was having none of it.

“That was a total underperformance from literally everybody involved,” said Wolff.

“Losing a car in Q1 is just not on. Driver and team combination. Should not happen.

“And at the end, we just didn’t have the pace. So very, very disappointing day.”

Discover the true origins of the Hungarian Grand Prix

👉 Meet the street circuit that hosted the first-ever Hungarian GP in 1936

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

Russell offered conflicting radio messages regarding his elimination, blaming himself, but then venting at the team for underfuelling his car .

While Wolff placed “70 per cent” of the blame on the team, he also made his view that Russell was far from blameless quite clear.

“Well, I think he should have had the first lap in where Lewis went P1,” said Wolff. “Instead that was probably taken too easy.

“And then the other one, we put a lap few total in, but that was a different run plan. It was fast-slow-fast, and he decided to do three fast laps.

“But overall, I think it’s 70 per cent the team’s mistake on not fuelling one lap more.”

Hamilton would ultimately fall six-tenths short of Lando Norris’ pole time of a 1:15.227 in the McLaren, Wolff saying it was difficult for Mercedes to optimise the tyre temperatures for their eight-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner, creating a lack of grip.

“I think probably the car could have been two-tenths off,” Wolff claimed, “but we were going up and down with tyre temperatures and it was tricky to kind of find a middle ground to give him a car that has grip.”

Norris headed a McLaren front-row lockout of the Hungarian Grand Prix grid, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen prepares to launch from P3.

Read next: George Russell explains ‘total disaster’ Hungarian GP Q1 exit