The twisty Hungaroring circuit had anticipated to play completely to the strengths of Pink Bull’s RB16B chassis.
Nonetheless, Mercedes turned the tables on its important title rival – with Lewis Hamilton grabbing pole place after which recovering from a fallacious technique name to complete third on the highway.
Mercedes didn’t have any quick solutions as to why it confirmed such sturdy tempo over the Hungarian weekend, however was intrigued about Pink Bull’s wing choice.
The world champion workforce had feared that Pink Bull could possibly be unbeatable if it went for its highest downforce model – with Mercedes utilizing its excessive model at a number of tracks now.
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin mentioned: “We thought it is a circuit that ought to swimsuit them [Red Bull].
“The opposite factor that all the time worries us after we come to a max downforce circuit is that we’re regularly operating round on our max downforce wing after which they carry it out for the Monacos and for this place.
“However perhaps they couldn’t steadiness that. They went away from it on Saturday and for us it appears odd that you’d ever run something apart from your greatest rear wing right here.
“We don’t profess to know why they’re taking selections on that automotive, but it surely could possibly be that they have been simply struggling to get sufficient entrance finish in it, on the massive wing, and so they dropped down onto the smaller one.”
Mercedes desires to do some deeper evaluation as to why its kind was higher than Pink Bull final weekend, with it showing to have made a efficiency achieve on each the straights and in corners.
“It’s one thing we have to have a look at over the subsequent few days,” mentioned Shovlin. “We’re all the way down to form of fairly small developments now to be trustworthy.
“We did have the replace equipment in Silverstone and that does appear like it’s given us some helpful efficiency. However then the automotive was working effectively when it comes to the place it was sustaining its tyre temperatures and we had fairly a pleasant steadiness with it.
“However to be trustworthy, we’re shocked by it ourselves. I imply it is a nice shock, however we have been shocked to have had that margin to pole for example.”