Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has said that there is no need to worry about his teams drop off in pace at the German Grand Prix thanks to the re-appearance of their tyre woes.
Nico Rosberg took a euphoric victory at the British Grand Prix a week earlier which signalled that the Brackley based team had got over their former struggles.
However despite Lewis Hamilton qualifying on pole for Sunday's race, he dropped to fifth by the chequered flag. Nico Rosberg dropped out in Q2 and failed to make the anticipated charge through the field, finishing a lowly ninth.
Hamilton and Rosberg both felt that the updated Pirelli tyres were to blame for their struggles and that will become even more costly when they miss the up-coming young driver test next week - due to the result of the International Tribunal.
Pirelli are bringing brand new compounds to the Hungarian Grand Prix with the 2012 structure and 2013 performance. Drivers and teams will get to test these out at the Silverstone young driver test and missing it could have a big impact on how Mercedes perform in Hungary.
Despite this, Wolff has revealed that Mercedes are relatively unfazed by their struggles and thinks that it is not as bad as some suggest.
Speaking to AUTOSPORT he said: "Germany was not a huge disappointment, it was just disappointing. It is not nice to see a car which won seven days before not performing in the same way - going from a top car back to a midfield performance.
"But we know the car is quick. A car doesn't deteriorate in just seven days."
He also revealed that he feels that due to having a fast car - albeit one that can't preserve its tyres - means that hard work can iron out the problems rather than a re-think.
"It highlights that we have to put out hears together," he said. "I think we have pretty intelligent people and we have to get on top of the problems."
Mercedes had previously hoped for a fourth Silverstone test day that they could take part in or a late reprieve to try out the Hungarian tyres but that looks out of the question now.
Wolff admitted that missing Silverstone will be a hindrance, but he feels that his engineers should make the most of the extra time at Brackley to keep working hard on solutions that they can try out in free practice.
"Obviously it is always a disadvantage if you can't test, but we know where we were and we have to stick to the best possible thing we can do. At least we get three days of thinking now."
The German squad will trial the new Pirelli tyres for the first time in FP1 at the Hungaroring.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
However despite Lewis Hamilton qualifying on pole for Sunday's race, he dropped to fifth by the chequered flag. Nico Rosberg dropped out in Q2 and failed to make the anticipated charge through the field, finishing a lowly ninth.
Hamilton and Rosberg both felt that the updated Pirelli tyres were to blame for their struggles and that will become even more costly when they miss the up-coming young driver test next week - due to the result of the International Tribunal.
Pirelli are bringing brand new compounds to the Hungarian Grand Prix with the 2012 structure and 2013 performance. Drivers and teams will get to test these out at the Silverstone young driver test and missing it could have a big impact on how Mercedes perform in Hungary.
Despite this, Wolff has revealed that Mercedes are relatively unfazed by their struggles and thinks that it is not as bad as some suggest.
Speaking to AUTOSPORT he said: "Germany was not a huge disappointment, it was just disappointing. It is not nice to see a car which won seven days before not performing in the same way - going from a top car back to a midfield performance.
"But we know the car is quick. A car doesn't deteriorate in just seven days."
He also revealed that he feels that due to having a fast car - albeit one that can't preserve its tyres - means that hard work can iron out the problems rather than a re-think.
"It highlights that we have to put out hears together," he said. "I think we have pretty intelligent people and we have to get on top of the problems."
Mercedes had previously hoped for a fourth Silverstone test day that they could take part in or a late reprieve to try out the Hungarian tyres but that looks out of the question now.
Wolff admitted that missing Silverstone will be a hindrance, but he feels that his engineers should make the most of the extra time at Brackley to keep working hard on solutions that they can try out in free practice.
"Obviously it is always a disadvantage if you can't test, but we know where we were and we have to stick to the best possible thing we can do. At least we get three days of thinking now."
The German squad will trial the new Pirelli tyres for the first time in FP1 at the Hungaroring.
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