Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has claimed that if Kimi Antonelli had qualified better at the Hungarian Grand Prix, a "very, very strong result" could have been on the cards.
The 18-year-old scored the first point in Europe of his F1 career at the Hungaroring, finishing tenth, but was limited in what he was able to achieve by starting a lowly P15.
Team-mate George Russell returned to the podium for the first time since their 1-3 finish in Montreal, capping off a return to form for Mercedes after a torrid run.
The catalyst for those difficulties was an ill-fated rear suspension upgrade at Imola, which cost the W16 stability in high-speed corners.
Whilst Russell was broadly able to drive around the problem, albeit with an impact on his results, Antonelli lost significant confidence.
The Brackley-based squad returned to its previous configuration for the round on the outskirts of Budapest, and it immediately paid dividends.
"It was certainly a stronger weekend from a performance point of view," said Shovlin. "So it was good that we seemed to have got to the bottom of some of the issues that have affected us at the recent races.
"It was much easier to work with the car as well. So the changes we were making, the car was responding well to it.
"And the drivers had a lot more confidence to attack the corners. So that was good."
The 51-year-old moved to take some of the share of responsibility for Antonelli's Q2 knock-out, stating "we", as in Mercedes, could have achieved more on the young Italian's side of the garage.
"Great to see George on the podium, as you say," he added. "We could have done a bit more with Kimi, though."
The eight-time constructors' champions utilised the offset one-stop strategy to good effect on Antonelli's car.
Having started on the medium compound, he was able to quickly dispatch of some slower cars ahead - and Lewis Hamilton on hard tyres - to get himself in position to aim for points.
He held on during his second and final stint to shake his pointless streak before F1's summer shutdown.
"If we could have qualified a bit better, the race pace that he had on Sunday could have seen him with a very, very strong result," Shovlin explained.
"So as I said, the learning and the understanding is one of the things we're most pleased with."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on last weekend's F1 Hungarian Grand Prix! McLaren's interesting control over its drivers is discussed, as is the current struggle being endured by Lewis Hamilton.
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