Mercedes start search for answers

Mercedes have opened an investigation into the blunders that are destabilising Lewis Hamilton’s championship challenge.

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes boss, headed directly from their latest capitulation in Austria to the team’s Northamptonshire headquarters yesterday to lead the inquest.

Hamilton was knocked off Formula 1’s title summit by Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel following the Briton’s retirement from Sunday’s race.

The defending champion has been given three days off by Mercedes ahead of this week’s British Grand Prix, but he has asked to be kept abreast of any developments after urging his team to issue a “bulletproof” response to their failings this season.

Hamilton will head into his home race one point behind Vettel after another strategical mistake denied him a certain victory at the Red Bull Ring before he retired with a loss of power.

Mercedes have enjoyed a remarkable run of success over the past four years, but their decision-making is now in the spotlight after they fell behind in both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.

Motor racing can be very cruel,” Wolff said. “We had all the cruelty go against us in Austria.

“But we have to get everyone together. We have got to analyse what went wrong, try not to do it again, understand how we can best avoid it happening again.”