Mercedes: There is something we are doing that isn't right

With a double-header hosted at the Red Bull Ring, Max Verstappen was dominant throughout, taking pole and the race win on both occasions to extend his lead at the top of the championship to 32 points.

The Dutchman also won the race before at Paul Ricard, a track that had traditionally been a Mercedes stronghold.

The teams now have a weekend off before heading to Silverstone, a track where Mercedes have had plenty of success at in the past and one where they will be desperately hoping to achieve a victory this year.

Asked about where things have gone wrong for Mercedes in recent weeks, Shovlin said that W12 was not suited to the Red Bull Ring layout, but suggested there was some longer term thinking behind its design.

"We haven't been particularly strong here in general," he said. "That isn't so much evidence in the gap to where Red Bull are.

"But just how much pressure we were under really with McLaren and Lando, who did a great job, but ended up ahead of us.

"Austria wasn't suiting the car and we've not made any real inroads into that over the two races here. That's a bit of a longer term thing to look at.

"Then also the very soft compound, the C5, just wasn't giving us as much in hot conditions on Saturday as we were getting from it on Friday and there's another question there.

"It wasn't as much that we did anything, obviously wrong. But when you look at where the performance was, we would have to acknowledge that there is something we are doing that isn't right."