The positive Mercedes drew from its negative Monaco GP weekend

Lewis Hamilton driving in the Monaco Grand Prix — Photo: © LAT Images

Mercedes

The positive Mercedes drew from its negative Monaco GP weekend

Mercedes saw a key aspect that underlines its title potential

Ian Parkes

Monday 31 May 2021 09:29

As weekends go, the recent one in Monaco was right up there with one of the worst for the team since the introduction of the current turbo-hybrid era in 2014.

The lack of pace - in particular on Lewis Hamilton's side of the garage - the wheel nut fiasco at Valtteri Bottas' pit stop, and the strategic woe that left Hamilton a dejected seventh, all combined to ensure it was a weekend to forget for Mercedes.

Throw in the fact the lead was lost in the drivers' and constructors' championships to main rival Red Bull and it is easy to appreciate that given the heights Mercedes has scaled over the last seven years, the Monaco GP was one of its lowest points.

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But a team like Mercedes simply does not forget what transpired around the streets of the Principality, and instead instantly sets about sifting through the wreckage of its poor performance to salvage any plus points on which it can learn from and build.

Explaining the process, chief strategist James Vowles said: "I’ll start with our core and our ethos within this team, and it’s one of standing up in the case of adversity, the one that accepts that faults and failures are going to happen.

"What’s actually really important is how the team cements itself after that. How do you pick apart the details and learn from them and more importantly become stronger at the next event and from then onwards?

"That culture underpins this team, and what happened in Monaco will only serve to strengthen that.

"Everyone is doing their utmost to understand every single bit of performance data and reliability and pit stop data, such that we move forwards as an entity and as a group.

"Those positives are incredibly powerful and ultimately, they are the ones that gel the team together such that you can win multiple championships together."

Mercedes to take the fight to Red Bull

There were numerous areas of concern for Mercedes in Monaco, not least were the tyre issues that have blighted it in the past at street tracks, and notably affected Hamilton on this occasion.

Bottas, however, did manage to extract performance that allowed him to claim third on the grid, potentially higher but for Charles Leclerc's crash in qualifying that denied the Finn a second crack at a flying lap.

Vowles can see the potential, allowing him to confess to there being "a whole heap of positives".

He added: "Valtteri had the pace to fight for a podium position. He had the pace in qualifying to be top three, and even if Leclerc was in there in the race, he would have still had the car to put him on the podium.

"Monaco was one of our weakest tracks, if not perhaps - and hopefully - the weakest. We know we are going to be stronger at some tracks going forward across the season.

"The positives are that even at this outlier track, at this poor track for us, if we can walk away with podium-type scoring potential it means we have a chance to fight for the championship.”