Wolff: “We limited the damage in Monaco”

Mercedes GP had not missed the podium since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. The world champion team suffered last weekend at the Monaco GP, Valtteri Bottas failing in 4th place after starting 3rd while Lewis Hamilton only took 7th place after missing qualifying and taking 13th position on the grid.

« Ferrari dominated the race and above all we must congratulate them for their performance, comments Toto wolff, the executive chairman of Mercedes Motorsport. Our job is to analyze what happened this weekend and understand what caused the problem. We could only limit the damage and the pilots did their best. »

“Valtteri rode a consistent and controlled race, adds Tow Wolff. He lacked success by losing 3rd place in the pits, but with two cars, Red Bull was able to corner him. We were able to contain VerstappenMore Ricciardo was able to perform a series of tricks that we could not follow. Lewis did a very good job of taking every opportunity to climb up to 7th place, which was the most he could do. »

Tough tire management

Toto Wolff emphasized the need to better exploit the tires, particularly the super softs which posed problems for Mercedes drivers.

“We lost pace at the end of the race with the super soft tires, admits Toto Wolff. The reality is that we had difficulty getting into the right operating window, which made our performance too erratic. We must identify our weak points and come back stronger in Montreal (Canada) in two weeks. »

Lewis Hamilton is now 25 points behind the Championship leader who won in Monaco last weekend. Scuderia Ferrari also took a slight lead over Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship with its one-two finish, ahead of the German team by 17 units.

Discover the analysis of the Monaco GP carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2116 of AUTOhebdo, available this evening in digital version on all platforms, and on newsstands from Wednesday.