Expert explains why Mercedes were so poor at the Austrian GP

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Former Formula 1 technical director Gary Anderson has explained what went wrong for Mercedes during this weekend’s Austrian GP.

Anderson was writing in The Telegraph and analysing another race where Red Bull dominated.

Max Verstappen came away from his team’s home race with two more wins under his belt.

He extended his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to 81 points over teammate Sergio Perez.

It’s hard to see anyone catching the Dutchman this year despite not even being halfway through the season.

After a very encouraging performance in Canada, Mercedes dropped off a cliff at the Austrian GP.

Lewis Hamilton failed to get out of the first session of qualifying for Saturday’s Sprint Race.

Both drivers missed out on points that day and didn’t fare much better on Sunday.

They eventually finished seventh and eighth after the plethora of penalties given out across the grid were applied.

It’s not a good sign going into Hamilton and George Russell’s home Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend.

Why Mercedes had a torrid time at the Austrian GP

Gary Anderson examined in his column for The Telegraph what went wrong for the German team.

Anderson – who used to work for Jaguar and Jordan – said: “Their race was a bit of a disaster.

“Why did Mercedes struggle so much at the Red Bull Ring?

“Austria is a more traditional racing track than Montréal and Monaco, but it is still fairly unusual.

“The rear end of a car is very important and that is one of Mercedes’ main weaknesses this year.

“It was no real surprise that the car struggled in the final two corners purely because of how they chose to set up Hamilton’s car.

“The main areas where you make up time in Austria are the exits of the tight turns one and three. The rear of the car is so important here and Mercedes clearly had an eye on that.”

He went on to say that Mercedes were naïve with their setup to try and reduce tyre wear at the Austrian GP.

Hamilton picked up a ten-second penalty by the end of the race as he simply couldn’t keep his car on the track.

Red Bull are streets ahead of the rest of the grid, but yesterday did Mercedes no favours in trying to cement second place in the championship.

Charles Leclerc’s podium gave Ferrari a big boost, while Fernando Alonso once again outperformed the two Brits in his Aston Martin.

Even though the front of the grid isn’t particularly exciting, the battle to be next best is at least keeping F1 fans engaged.