26 July 2023 , 20:28
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Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has admitted the team "never believed" they could beat Max Verstappen in the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite Lewis Hamilton starting on pole.
Hamilton was almost immediately overtaken by Verstappen and accused his rival of pushing him wide at the first corner, with the Brit also falling behind Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on the opening lap. He was unable to recover and ultimately finished fourth, while Mercedes teammate George Russell ended up in sixth.
"The start, actually, the initial getaway wasn't the worst I've ever had, but it obviously wasn't as good as Max's," Hamilton said after the race. "I had a bit of wheelspin and then obviously Max was on the inside and he ran me wide and I got done by the two McLarens.
"So, definitely not a great start, kind of reminiscent of 2015 when I fell back from first. After that, just didn't have the pace to keep up with the guys. The balance in the car was pretty awful on that first stint, a lot of understeer and oversteer through corner balance and I just couldn't keep up with them.
"So then, bit by bit, as we got through the next couple of stints, the car started to become more drivable, and then the last stint obviously was much better. If we had had the pace we had at the end, we would have been a little bit better I think through the day."
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And while Shovlin says it was "disappointing" that Hamilton could not earn a podium finish after securing pole position, he admitted Mercedes always felt Verstappen would win the race. "Starting from P1 and not even making the podium is always going to be disappointing," Shovlin said.
"We never believed we had the pace to beat Verstappen, but we could have been second had more gone our way. The opening lap wasn't great for Lewis, dropping to fourth, but as the race went on our pace seemed to get better.
Lewis Hamilton accused Max Verstappen of pushing him wide at the first corner of the Hungarian Grand Prix (Getty Images)"At one point it looked like we'd be a distant fourth, but he did a good job closing Perez and Lando Norris down in the final stint. It was frustrating that we couldn't get on the back of them sooner.
"Our expectations with George were to just make it into the points. For him to come sixth is a very good result. We were nursing engine temperatures, which cost both cars a lot of race time, as the ambient temperature was slightly higher than expected.
"We've made small gains to Ferrari and Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship, which is some consolation. Overall though, we leave here thinking we could have done a much better job as a Team."