Mercedes improved from ‘awful’ to ‘not good’ in Monaco

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in Sunday’s rain-affected race, one place ahead of George Russell as Mercedes debuted their long-awaited upgrades, including a revised sidepod design. 

While Wolff noted a step forward in his team’s performance in Monaco compared to the same race last year, he revealed Hamilton and Russell are still not happy with the W14. 

“It’s so difficult [to assess] because we were in the mix with Aston Martin and with Ferrari, I would say,” Wolff said. 

“On a positive note, maybe encouraging because we have never been really good here.

“We have been three tenths behind pole. Last year was six tenths. The car was awful last year and this time around the drivers said it’s not good.

“So, there’s a step in description. But we really need to be careful. We’ve got to go to Barcelona, collect more data. It’s a new baseline.

“I don’t expect us clearing Aston Martin and Ferrari there either.”

Although Wolff seemed to downplay the early impact of Mercedes’ updates, he is confident the team can chip away at their deficit to Red Bull over the remainder of the season. 

“It is more about understanding what does this car do now and how do we need to set it up?” Wolff added. 

“We’re really good at grinding away once we decide the development direction.

“Even with the old package that wasn’t great - it was terrible at the beginning of the season - we managed to win a race in Interlagos in a very dominant way. So, we’re going to get there.”