Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he team needs to be wary of how quickly Ferrari can come back in to the title race.

Sebastian Vettel won the Hungarian Grand Prix - his second win of the season - as Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and Nico Rosberg eighth in a dramatic race in Budapest. With the teams now taking stock during the mid-season break, Vettel is just 21 points behind Rosberg in the standings, while Hamilton enjoys a similar margin at the top of the championship.

Wolff says Hungary highlights how quickly the situation can change and calls on Mercedes to be alert as it defends its advantage in Belgium.

"You just need to be careful," Wolff said. "We’re just 42 points ahead in the Drivers’ World Championship and you can see how quickly it goes. You have a bad day, two cars not scoring good points and ‘boom’ you go backwards.

"But that is a mentality we’re having anyway of always being a bit sceptical about how we are doing."

In terms of the constructors' championship, Mercedes currently enjoys a lead of 137 points over Ferrari as it chases back-to-back titles.

Click here to find out the budgets available to each F1 team during the 2015 season

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Sainz reveals ‘not ideal’ reality shared with Alonso

Carlos Sainz has lifted the lid on a private paddock conversation he enjoyed with Fernando…

22 mins ago

Horner names the true culprits of his Red Bull exit

Christian Horner has offered a revealing look back at his dramatic exit from Red Bull…

2 hours ago

McLaren Majesty: When Prost and Lauda stood alone

Alain Prost follows Niki Lauda by just two days on the February birthday calendar, the…

3 hours ago

Coulthard on why Bottas has the edge over Perez at Cadillac

Sergio Perez’s Formula 1 comeback with Cadillac is already under the microscope – and he…

4 hours ago

‘Not pure Formula 1’: Verstappen fires fresh salvo at 2026 cars

After pre-season testing in Bahrain gave F1’s drivers their first real taste of the sport’s…

6 hours ago

‘In Her Corner’: Australian GP celebrates women shaping F1

In a first for Formula 1, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has announced that Turn…

7 hours ago