Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff: ‘It was a catastrophic moment’ | Motorsport

The dominant top team of the past few years’ couldn’t get the tires to work ‘and Hamilton, who was the first of the drivers to enter the top of the field for a pit stop, was disappointed with the strategy and called the performance of his team’ below par ‘.

“The undercut was our only chance, because there weren’t many of the tires left ”, countered Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. Instead of Hamilton getting past Pierre Gasly that way, he ended up losing spots to Sergio Pérez and Sebastian Vettel, who later came in for a pit stop. Wolff: „It was not good enough and it is difficult to have all the answers. Monaco is a circuit that often does not suit us well. You build a car for a whole year, for 23 races. And for Monaco you need a completely different car than on the average circuits. ”

Wolff saw that Bottas, second behind Verstappen at that time, did not make it to the end of the race in Monaco after a failed pit stop. The mechanics could not release the right front wheel, forcing the Finn to quit the fight. Wolff: “That is not the fault of one person, there are several factors that play a role. It was a catastrophic moment. We will have to investigate why this is. ”