With no podiums after the first eight races, Mercedes is having the worst F1 season since its inception. The Monaco GP was no different as both drivers struggled to take the fight to McLaren and Ferrari. Despite that, Toto Wolff has found a silver lining that might give the team hopes of making inroads to climb up.
Mercedes’ troubles began with the advent of the ground-effect regulations in 2022. Since then, they have failed to land on the podium in every Monaco GP. However, they have introduced upgrades in each iteration. While the gap to the top spot still remains big, the latest upgrades have reduced it significantly.
That is why Toto Wolff is hopeful going forward in the championship. The Mercedes boss was quoted by Auto Motor und Sport as saying, “We are moving in the right direction.”
Despite finishing fifth and seventh in Monaco, team boss Toto Wolff breathed a sigh of relief: “We are moving in the right direction.”#AMuS
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) May 30, 2024
The Monaco street circuit is full of twists and turns with several slow-speed corners. Moreover, the straights aren’t as long as most other circuits.
That requires the teams to make tweaks in order to get more downforce in corners. Mercedes did just that with their rear wing. Apart from that, they introduced a couple of non-track-specific upgrades that included the floor and the front wing.
Unfortunately, Mercedes was unable to produce two upgraded front wings to fix on both cars. As a result, they had to take the difficult decision of choosing between the two drivers.
Thankfully, Lewis Hamilton made their job easy by suggesting that they choose George Russell. The 26-year-old made the most of the opportunity by qualifying and finishing the race ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton gives up in qualifying fight against George Russell
Mercedes began the Monaco GP weekend on a strong note. While Lewis Hamilton topped the timings chart in FP1, George Russell came in third behind Oscar Piastri. Hamilton continued the good run in FP2 by coming in second behind Charles Leclerc by less than two-tenths of a second.
He then fell back by just another place in FP3 but looked solid for qualifying. That was when the tables turned as he qualified a disappointing P7.
Russell, meanwhile, landed P5. Reacting to the sudden drop in performance post-session, Hamilton let his perplexity know about the continued failure to carry good performances to qualifying.
Speaking after qualifying, as quoted by Mirror, he said, “I don’t understand… I automatically know I’m going to lose two-tenths going into qualifying. That’s definitely frustrating and something I don’t really have an answer for at the moment. I’m not driving any different and the laps were really great.”
