After a strong performance at the British Grand Prix, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes the team would be ‘naive’ to think they have the advantage heading to Budapest after Lewis Hamilton took victory at Silverstone.

The British-based German team slashed Red Bull’s advantage in both the driver and team standings, pulling themselves back into championship contention as Max Verstappen crashed out of the race on the opening lap.

Hamilton and Verstappen had a coming together, with the Briton deemed at fault for the crash, with the stewards handing the seven-time world champion a ten-second time penalty for his part in the crash.

However with a DNF for Verstappen, and his team-mate Sergio Perez finishing outside of the top 15, Mercedes sliced Red Bull’s lead to just four points in the teams’ standings, with Verstappen’s lead cut to eight over Hamilton.

“[Silverstone] is one of our best tracks, so it would be naive for us to think we can go [to Hungary] and expect to carry this performance in,” said Shovlin.

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