Mercedes anger a "normal phenomenon" in face of failure - Toto Wolff

Monaco Grand Prix

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Mercedes anger a "normal phenomenon" in face of failure - Wolff

Mercedes gave up its championship lead to Red Bull after a disastrous race in Monaco

Sam Hall & Ewan Gale

Sunday 23 May 2021 18:41 Updated: 18:52

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has insisted anger is a "completely normal phenomenon" in the face of failure after a dismal Monaco Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton finished only seventh at the principality after being caught out during the pit-stop phase and losing out to Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly.

Valtteri Bottas, meanwhile, retired after a bizarre pit-stop issue where his wheel nut "machined" itself to the right-front axle.

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With Max Verstappen winning the race, Mercedes and Hamilton surrendered their championship leads to the Dutchman and his Red Bull team.

"It is an interesting sequence of emotions because when you realise that you are facing failure then anger kicks in," Wolff said.

"This is a completely normal phenomenon and you need to stay on top of your emotions and say 'Okay, it is what it is. What can we do in order to optimise the current situation?'

"If there is not a lot to optimise short term then how can we avoid these kinds of failures in the future and where we need to optimise.

"Only if you create a safe environment where people can speak up, where you are able to analyse the shortcomings and the gaps then you will create solutions to avoid making the mistakes in the future. It is an emotional rollercoaster that you go through."

Mercedes day akin to Ferrari and Leclerc

The race started in a catastrophic way for Ferrari as Charles Leclerc was forced to withdraw from pole position after a driveshaft failure ahead of the start.

Wolff likened Mercedes' day to that of the Monégasque driver and said the team simply lacked the pace of its rivals.

“Seeing Charles, that was a disaster day for him and it wasn’t any better for us either," he added.

"We lacked the pace all weekend it’s as simple as that and then the pit stop failure that we had is something that we need to understand because we completely machined the wheel nut.

“With Lewis, we just didn’t have the pace in the car.”