Mercedes endured a rather tough weekend at the Styrian Grand Prix, having failed to dominate the grid for the first time in years. Neither of the drivers had the pace to fight the Red Bull duo, as they constantly lapped over 0.2s slower than their rivals.

Following such a difficult weekend at the Red Bull Ring, Mercedes’ technical director, James Allison, opened up about what Mercedes inferred from the post-race debrief.

What did Allison say

During a podcast, Allison reckoned that the Brackley outfit are happy with the weekend despite possessing the second fastest car on the track. He felt that Mercedes enjoyed a perfectly executed weekend, and all they need now is the extra bit of pace to match Red Bull again.

“Well, we were discussing whether it is more painful to be beaten on pace, having executed a clean weekend, or having thrown away opportunities where you might have won but you left stuff on the table that stopped it. And reached the conclusion very very quickly,” he said.

“But, although the former hurts pride, cause you don’t like to be slower than the people you’re competing with, that delivering everything we can in good order is a precious asset,” he continued while featuring in the F1 Nation podcast.

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Mercedes eying a comeback at the Austrian GP?

The reigning world champions may have hit a rough patch for the first time in a while. However, considering their ability to fight back, there is no denying that the German outfit aren’t giving up already.

Mercedes still have a second chance to prove their dominance against Red Bull at the Austrian GP. Allison, too, acknowledged the same, as he reckoned Mercedes are looking to stay within striking distance from Red Bull, while they search for the missing piece of performance.

“It is necessary to keep this in the hunt while we seek the missing performance and is a very minimum we should expect to what we’re doing. So, we had a good weekend, from an execution point of view,” he said.

Overall, an exciting weekend awaits the F1 fans. Nobody has seen Mercedes falling trap to such immense pressure. Hence, being seven-time world champions, it will be interesting to see how they pull themselves up for the weekend at the Red Bull Ring.

Is a comeback on cards from Mercedes this weekend? We’ll know soon enough.

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