Wolff reveals analysis of 'major factor' behind Mercedes setback

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has suggested there was a "major factor" behind the outfit's difficulties in the Dutch Grand Prix. 

After winning three of the previous four races ahead of the trip to Zandvoort, Mercedes was uncompetitive throughout the weekend. 

George Russell started fourth but tumbled to seventh, one place ahead of Lewis Hamilton who finished eighth after starting in P14. 

The Silver Arrows were fourth in the pecking order throughout the Dutch GP, with Wolff now urging the team to analyse what caused the setback ahead of the Italian Grand Prix this weekend. 

"These cars are sometimes a surprise box," Wolff told select media including RacingNews365. "Six podiums in a row, and that doesn't look like the car that three weeks ago was first and second, at least first on merit. 

"You can't really end up with a result like this without any major factor playing, and that's something we need to analyse in the next few days until Monza. 

"Was it because we put something on the car that didn't help? Did we engineer something into the car that wasn't good? 

"And how do we justify the swings of performance that sometimes we looked really good [in Zandvoort] and then obviously in the race, in terms of degradation, not very impressive."

Mercedes performance 'factors'

In Wolff's opinion, there are "two factors" behind Mercedes' difficulties, the first of which is its latest upgrade package. 

Mercedes reintroduced its upgrades from the Belgian Grand Prix, which were taken off by the Brackley-based team ahead of third practice in Spa-Francorchamps.

With first practice at Zandvoort disrupted by mixed weather and third practice red-flagged for the majority of the session after Logan Sargeant's crash, Mercedes, like every other team, was unable to gather significant data. 

"I think it was two factors," Wolff assessed. "We went back to the update kit on Friday, which at the end, left us with not a lot of data. 

"The update kit that we put onto the car in Spa, and then took off again. 

"And then, obviously, with the lack of running like everybody else maybe we didn't decide the right things for the car. 

"And so there could be a few factors at play that contributed to this non-performance question."