Martin Brundle delivers worrying assessment of ‘confused’ and ‘surviving’ Mercedes

As Mercedes’ latest big round of upgrades failed to fire at Spa, Martin Brundle says he can imagine the team has been left “confused” by “Diva 2”.

Mercedes arrived at the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, the final race before the summer break, with the W14 sporting several notable changes including revised sidepods and cooling inlets.

It was suggested from the get-go that the latter was more a Hungarian GP-esque update with former Jordan and Jaguar F1 technical director Gary Anderson saying he was a “bit surprised with the modifications Mercedes has brought to Spa”.

Mercedes calling their revised car ‘Diva 2’

He added: “Perhaps they were intended for Hungary, but took too long to produce?”

The upgrades failed to close the gap on runaway championship leaders Red Bull with Lewis Hamilton fourth fastest in qualifying, a second down on pace-setter Max Verstappen, while George Russell was a further seven-tenths back in eighth place.

They finished the grand prix fourth and sixth, their progress in part due to a first-lap collision between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri, with Hamilton the lead Mercedes but almost 50s down on race-winner Verstappen.

That he could not catch Charles Leclerc and eventually pitted late in the race to at least snatch the fastest lap point was of little comfort to Mercedes.

“I think they will be very frustrated,” was Brundle’s assessment to Sky F1. “Their car is on a knife-edge to set up, to understand, to drive.

“Then they suddenly promise a great result, get something a little bit special, go to the next race with upgrades – and fall off the pace.

“I would imagine they are confused with this car. ‘Diva 2’ I think they call it already don’t they?

“They are surviving the season, as they did last year, and making the best of a bad job because they are a great team.”

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但并不是每个人都在天空的覆盖率是悲观的as Brundle in their verdict of the team’s recent performances with former W Series racer Naomi Schiff adamant there is “enough there” in their season to be “positive about”.

Sunday’s result saw Hamilton close to within a point of Fernando Alonso in the fight for third place in theDrivers’ standingswhile Mercedes extended their advantage over Aston Martin to 51 points.

“Despite Fernando’s great recovery today, Lewis is in a good position to do just that [claim P3 i the standings]” she said. “Their car seems to be going forward at least a little bit.

“We had a pole position from Lewis in Budapest so even though the global picture is not them on the podium at each race event, they have a car that on a Sunday really does perform.

“I think for them the bigger concern today was the Ferraris, they had fantastic pace this weekend whether it was dry or wet, their car is in a window where it’s really working.

“Lewis was between 2-3s behind Charles the whole race, and just didn’t have enough in the end it chase him down.

“But I think there’s enough there to be positive about. They have a car, unlike other teams who are very track-specific, they are consistently there or thereabouts. Something to build on, for sure.”

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