Brundle's alarming Mercedes F1 verdict: 'Frustrated, confused and surviving'

Despite bringing a fairly sizeable upgrade to their underperforming and revised W14 car, Mercedes failed to take a notable step forward in competitiveness across the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. 

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in Sunday’s grand prix while teammate George Russell came home sixth, with the Mercedes duo split by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin. 

“They will be very frustrated. Their car is on a knife-edge to set up, to understand, to drive,” Brundle said on Sky’s coverage. 

“Then they suddenly promise a great result, get something special then go to the next race with upgrades, and fall off the pace.

"I would imagine they are confused with this car. Diva 2.0, I think they call it.

“They are surviving the season, as they did last year, and making the best of a bad situation because they are a great team.” 

However, fellow Sky F1 pundit and former W Series racer Naomi Schiff feels the global picture is not so bad for Mercedes. 

“Despite Fernando’s great recovery today, Lewis is in a good position [to claim P3 in the drivers’ standings],” she said. “We had a pole position from Lewis.

“Even though the global picture is not them on the podium at each race event, they have a car that on a Sunday really does perform.

“Today the bigger concern was the Ferraris, they had fantastic pace in the dry and the wet, their car is in a window where it’s really working.

“Lewis was 2-3s behind Charles the whole race. He didn’t have enough in the end it chase him down.

“There’s enough to be positive about. They have a car, unlike other teams who are very track-specific, they are consistently there or thereabouts. Something to build on, for sure.”