Mercedes staff boss Toto Wolff sounded a constructive observe after the tactical Monaco Grand Prix, claiming that his outfit has taken a step ahead with the newest upgrades with additional developments set to arrive for the W15 in the coming races.
Mercedes has had an up-and-down season to date in 2024. Although the staff has proven flashes of encouraging efficiency, primarily in observe classes, qualifings and races have seen Mercedes slip down the pecking order. However, Monaco marked the first race of the season the place Mercedes might show comparable pace to the field-leading Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull on which staff boss Toto Wolff pins hopes so far as the remainder of the season is anxious.
“Overall, we’ve had a constructive weekend. We had been much closer than now we have been in Qualifying to date this 12 months and confirmed good tempo all through the race. That was regardless of the first lap purple flag which took away a lot of our technique choices.
“We opted to change to the Medium compound tyres underneath that purple flag and each George and Lewis did a very good job to handle them all through. Lewis didn’t want to make a cease, however we had been in a position to field him and safe the level for quickest lap.
Toto Wolff is conscious of what Mercedes wants to enhance with its W15, claiming that the steadiness of the automobile nonetheless wants to be fine-tuned in the coming races.
“The trajectory is going in the right direction. We’ve understood where we need to improve the balance car and we’re bringing updates to enhance that. We know there will be ups and downs depending on the circuits we go to but overall, I am happy with the development direction. Let’s see how we perform in Canada,” added Wolff.
Congrats, Charles 👏 pic.twitter.com/FSMXzNnumS
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) May 26, 2024
Speaking of the race and Mercedes’ technique in the 78-lap Monaco spherical, Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin mentioned: “We opted for another technique by beginning each automobiles on the Hard tyre. There had been professionals and cons to this; a purple flag or Safety Car intervention after the entrance 4 had stopped would have offered a chance to get each automobiles on the podium. However, a lap one purple flag would show awkward. This is precisely what befell us as the race acquired underway.
“We had been due to this fact in a scenario the place we had to attempt to get to the finish on the Medium tyre. Most automobiles had been doing a good bit of administration, so this was comparatively simple to deal with in the finish.
“George appeared to have good tempo in the closing levels and was in a position to defend effectively in opposition to Max and it was encouraging to see the enhancements we made in our future since Friday. The cease with Lewis in the direction of the finish wasn’t crucial from a tyre perspective, but it surely did give us a chance to take an additional level for quickest lap.
Shovlin took delight from his staff’s efficiency on the slim streets of Monaco, claiming that the upgrades helped the Brackley-based outfit make a step ahead.
“Overall, the weekend was one other indication that we are shifting in the proper route. We had been simply 25 milliseconds off P3 in Qualifying, which is an annoying margin to miss out on a possible podium by.
“That said, a few weeks ago we couldn’t even talk about podiums. We’ll have both cars on the latest updates in Montreal with a few additional bits on top. We’ll keep working hard and hopefully better results are not far away,” Shovlin concluded.
