Lewis Hamilton ‘Lacked Confidence’ in Monaco: Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton endured one of his worst races in recent memory in Monaco. The seven-time world champion looked far from his best, and a disappointing qualifying was backed up by a forgettable race. In the end, he crossed the finish line in P7 and lost the lead in the championship as well. Analyzing his performance in Monaco, former teammate and rival Nico Rosberg thinks he knows why Lewis had a weekend to forget.

The 2016 world championship winner believes Hamilton had no confidence in the car. He said (translated via Google), “Lewis was lacking confidence from the very beginning, you could see that.

“In the third practice, the rear of the car was not consistent, the car was not holding the track well and it could not catch the rhythm in the qualifying rounds.

“As a result, he finished seventh in the qualifying rounds.”

Monaco is an extremely difficult track to overtake on. The best chance one can give themselves to make up a position or two is by undercutting. However, the strategy didn’t quite pay off for Mercedes, leaving Hamilton red faced.

Nico Rosberg looks at why Mercedes pitstop gamble with Lewis Hamilton failed

With the Briton stuck in the wake of Pierre Gasly, Mercedes rolled the dice by calling Lewis into the pits earlier than expected. But in an unfortunate turn of events, by the time Hamilton got back out on track he was still behind Gasly, who managed to overcut him by stopping a lap earlier.

Speaking about why Mercedes’ strategy didn’t work, Rosberg said, “Mercedes took a risk by trying to make an early pit stop, but in doing so they did not take into account how difficult it was to heat the hard tire. As a result, Lewis lost a lot of time against his rivals.”

It was a total disaster, not just for Lewis, but for Mercedes overall. They had a horror pitstop with Valtteri Bottas wherein a jammed wheel nut ended his race. In the end, the Silver Arrows left Monaco with just seven points to their name.

All eyes will be on the Brackley-based outfit in Baku. Will they be able to bounce back and reclaim the championship lead from Red Bull? Only time will tell.

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