Was This Cause of Hamilton’s Frustration? Wolff Reveals Mercedes Didn’t Pursue His ‘Direction’ in Monaco

Lewis Hamilton produced his worst qualifying in recent memory at the Monaco Grand Prix. The fact that he was almost a second behind pole-sitter, Charles Leclerc, left him frustrated with his team. And his team boss, Toto Wolff, has tried to explain the exact reason behind that.

After his terrible qualifying, he emphasized the need to have “tough discussions” with Mercedes. He believed “things that should have been done, haven’t been done.” Toto explained that the issue was related to tire warm-up where the team didn’t heed his advice and paid the price.

“There was one particular aspect of tyre heating that we discussed this morning and on Thursday night where we could have taken a different direction, a direction that he was interested to pursue, that we didn’t.

“That was exactly the content of our discussions now, how can we go into an exploration mode when we expect much colder temperatures,” said Toto Wolff.

On the other hand, his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, was able to generate more temperatures from his compounds. The Finn managed to put his car in the third position. Hence, it does prove that the problem was related to set-up in Hamilton’s half of the garage.

Lewis Hamilton had a ‘productive and tough debriefing’ with Mercedes: Toto Wolff

There is a good chance of rain for Sunday’s main race in Monaco, as well. Coupled with the track’s slow speed nature, it could be a massive headache to generate heat into the tires. So, they need to nail it, especially after the brutally honest discussions that they must have had.

“We just had a very productive and tough debriefing, and those are exactly the days where we learn the most. This team has a brutal honesty and transparency within itself, and we didn’t get things right,” said Toto.

“It’s not completely clear yet how all the tuning possibilities were interacting with each other. But I would generally say that we were not having enough grip in each of those runs. And probably linked to tire temperature.”

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Since the scope of overtaking is limited in Monaco, Hamilton would be in damage limitation mode. If he gets anywhere close to a podium, that would be a massive win for him.