Mercedes 'tripped' by Monaco bumps

Hamilton in Monaco — Photo: © LAT Images

Monaco Grand Prix

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Mercedes 'tripped' by Monaco bumps

Mercedes has been struggling on the bumpy Monaco surface

Sam Hall

Saturday 28 May 2022 11:30 Updated: 11:54

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has conceded the F1 constructors' champions are searching for answers after being 'tripped more than others' by the Monaco bumps.

A combination of public roads and the stiffer new generation machinery has proven to be more problematic for Mercedes compared to its rivals, leading to team boss Toto Wolff declaring the W13 "undriveable" after FP1.

After setting only the 12th fastest time on Friday, Lewis Hamilton claimed his eyeballs were coming out of their sockets due to the ride, while George Russell was left doing "wheelies" in his car.

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Shovlin, standing in for Wolff who was forced to skip the FIA press conference after losing his voice, said: "We were trying to make fairly big changes in terms of set-up to understand the important factors around this track and then hopefully be doing more of the fine-tuning into FP3, so we can pick the bones out of that.

"Hopefully, we will have the two of them [Hamilton and Russell] finding the car a bit easier but the main thing we have been struggling with here has just been the ride.

"Over the kerbs and some of the bumps - the circuit is a bit bumpy but it seems to be tripping us up more than the others so that has been another of the big areas that we have just been focused on over the last few hours."

Mercedes confident Barcelona gains remain

Mercedes enjoyed its strongest weekend of the year at the Spanish Grand Prix in which Hamilton and Russell were able to mix it with Ferrari and Red Bull, with the latter scoring his second podium of the year.

But although the team has more things to try in final practice, Shovlin conceded long-run pace will not help it this weekend given the emphasis on qualifying.

"Most of what you look at on Friday is actually the single-lap pace and in Barcelona, we weren't on the pace of Ferrari in particular but [also] not on the pace of Red Bull," added Shovlin.

"If you look at the single-lap picture, we know that it's an area that needs work and that was the case on Friday.

"If you look at the long runs though, they were more consistent. In terms of what the tyres were doing for us, they all looked to be in a good window and we're not suffering much degradation.

"So it's a similar picture. The only problem is that in Barcelona you can do something with that long-run pace but in Monaco, as we know, you need to sort the single lap."