Mercedes suffered their worst qualifying session since Imola 2022, with both Silver Arrows failing to reach the top 10 in Monaco.
The upgrades introduced to the W16 last weekend, at least for now, are failing to have the desired impact.
Mercedes have been consistently slower than the front-runners in Monaco, whilst even Aston Martin, Williams and even VCARB have enjoyed an edge.
Considering their development trajectory in recent years, their lack of pace is something of a concern – although there were some mitigating circumstances.
Russell, Antonelli with a tough journey to score points
Like most rookies, the challenge for Kimi Antonelli to meet the demands of the Monte Carlo circuit was steep.
The Italian committed a common mistake in the final moments of Q1, preventing him from competing in the next phase of qualifying.
Not too long after, another reliability issue hampered Mercedes – just one week since Antonelli was forced to retire from a failure in Imola.
At a circuit like Monaco, recovering from a poor qualifying is extremely difficult.
Overtaking outside of the first lap is very difficult, especially in the absence of wet conditions.
Luckily for the Brackley squad, tomorrow’s race has two mandatory stops – which should provide opportunities for courageous strategy calls.
An early Safety Car, for example, could give drivers near the back an opportunity to make two pit-stops and fulfil the requirement.
With that said, as seen in Imola, the C6-C4 tyre range can be prone to high levels of tyre degradation.
This is something else for teams to consider, including Mercedes, who have been struggling to find solutions at the Principality:
“We’ve been struggling the entire weekend with our single laps,” said Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director.
“And it has not been easy on our drivers.
“That has put them under a lot of pressure this weekend to deliver fast laps at the critical moments and that definitely contributed to Kimi’s incident.
“Drivers are always on the limit here in Monaco and a little mistake can cost a lot.
“That was certainly true on his side of the garage, and that left him P15.”
Mercedes still working to understand updates
Regardless of whether Mercedes can recover in the Monaco GP, there are bigger questions for the team to answer.
The upgrades from Imola, at least for now, are the first changes from the Brackley factory since 2023 that haven’t delivered a step forward in performance.
Of course, reaching conclusions about an upgrade after just two race weekends would be premature.
Still, this does not make the task for Toto Wolff’s team any easier
There is also the issue of a new technical directive in Spain to deal with – a race weekend that will be accompanied with upgrades from several teams.
In this sense, the next few months will see some important changes in the pecking order.
Until recently, Mercedes were arguably the best placed team to capitalise on any potential slip-ups from McLaren.
For now, this is no longer the case, with more fundamental problems now on the German constructor’s to-do list.
Main photo: LAT Images (via Mercedes media gallery)
