F1 champion's concerning observation about 'perplexed' Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton could only finish seventh, one place ahead of teammate George Russell, on what Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described as a “bruising day” for his side in Austria. 

Despite starting fifth on the grid and jumping McLaren’s Lando Norris into fourth with a strong start, Hamilton struggled for pace and was hit with a time penalty for track limits as he slipped back to P7. 

Russell rose from 11th to finish eighth but both drivers were left despondent and admitted they expected more from their underperforming W14 at the Red Bull Ring. 

“That’s the lowest I’ve heard them sound,” 1996 F1 world champion Hill said during Sky F1’s post-race analysis. 

“It has swung in the wrong direction, at this particular venue, by quite a long way. They are perplexed by that.

“They will be looking forward to Silverstone, they know it’s a different character of track. They might be more in their zone.” 

Hamilton let out a barrage of frustrated radio messages throughout the race, leading to an intervention from Wolff to try and calm the seven-time world champion down. 

“It’s a little bit stressful to hear,” Sky F1’s Naomi Schiff said. “You don’t hear Lewis lose his cool on the radio. Today, he was frustrated.

“I think some of that [is because] some cars have brought updates, and they haven’t.

“McLaren have made a big step forward, Ferrari have made a big step forward, that will obviously be a part of the pace difference.

“Fernando wasn’t as far up the road, so that could be playing into it.

“The thing that’s strange is that a track like this typically the gaps are closer, rather than bigger, so it’s a concern.

“You can see how disappointed Toto was.”

Aston Martin’s former head of strategy and fellow Sky pundit Bernie Collins added: “There is very little recovery from this, straight into a race next week.

“They need to figure it out quickly.

“You need to get on top of it quickly, there will be a lot of analysis going on - the tyres, the pace deficit.

“It’s how quickly you can turn around that analysis, find a solution, and get it on the car.

“With races hammering along in the background, the points are drifting away all the time.”