“Well,” Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff told reporters after the Hungarian Grand Prix, “that rear axle will be ending up in a bin somewhere, I guess…”

The trend line of Mercedes’ mid-season slump in performance is more obvious if you discount the outlier result of the Canadian Grand Prix, where George Russell won and Kimi Antonelli became the youngest-ever driver to stand on a grand prix podium.

Russell claimed four podiums in the first six races, including a remarkable second place in a failing car in Bahrain. But, Canada aside, qualifying and race performance has been problematic since the team introduced a new rear-suspension configuration at Imola – then dropped it, only to put it back on the car in Montreal.

It reverted to the previous spec for Hungary after a poor weekend in Bel

See Full Page