Toto Wolff admits that McLaren is now the “new benchmark” in Formula 1, and he concedes that Red Bull was also still faster than Mercedes in Hungary.
Lewis Hamilton finished third behind the two McLaren drivers after getting the better of Max Verstappen in a tussle that ended when the pair made contact.
Meanwhile George Russell rose from 17th on the grid to eighth at the flag, but he was beaten by Sergio Perez, having been ahead of the Mexican at one stage in the race.
“I’m not sure we were quicker than Max today,” said Wolff. “We beat him on the track. But pure race time, probably not.”
“But what you have to acknowledge is that McLaren are clearly now leading the field under any conditions. They deserve a one and two, and that is the new benchmark.”
“It’s great that we have another team that has made that jump, and being able to score first and second, it’s good for all of us, but under these conditions we were just never good, we were not in anywhere level to reach them.”
“So I am happy for them. And I’ve seen the movie that they find themselves in.”
Wolff accepts that Mercedes now has to target beating Ferrari to third place in the World Championship.
“It’s difficult to put targets out because it swings a lot, with upgrade to upgrade,” he said. “But I think if we were to say what is, what is a realistic to optimum scenario. Today, it’s probably P3 in the championship.”
“It’s difficult to catch Red Bull, and McLaren is now the benchmark. Therefore, I think that would be a good target, but it’s not easy.”
Wolff acknowledged that Mercedes had high hopes for the Hungarian GP after the wins in Austria and Britain while acknowledging that it would be a difficult track for the W15.
“It’s in humans’ minds to set your expectations based on what you just achieved,” he said. “But it was clear that Budapest, in the heat, the open tarmac, is something that’s not going to be so good for us, and probably more playing to the hands of other teams.”
“So taking away the podium, a hard-fought podium – with unfortunately George yesterday, we lost the race with him – is good. And I’m looking forward to Spa, and hopefully we’ll see whether we can maintain this level of performance.”
Wolff said that the team is focussing on hot weather performance.
“I think we just have more surface overheating than the other cars,” he said. “This is what we need to get under control, how can we reduce the temperatures in the rear? And we’re working on that.”
Regarding Verstappen’s contact with Hamilton he said: “Well, at that stage I think we struggled to hold on, and he just launched himself.
“And I think there’s some context, that he wasn’t happy at all how his race was happening, and launched himself and locked the wheels, and basically went straight and hit Lewis.”
