After both drivers were eliminated in Q2 yesterday, everyone expected a bold strategy from them to try to recover as many positions as possible. Instead, the Monaco GP turned out to be one to forget for Mercedes, with both cars finishing outside the points. Toto Wolff explained what the planned strategy was for the two drivers in the Monaco Grand Prix.
From the very first of the 78 race laps, the situation became difficult for the two Mercedes drivers. During the opening lap, at the Portier corner, Antonelli “dived” inside Bortoleto’s Sauber in an attempt to retake the position he had lost at the hairpin. The overtaking move did not end well for the Brazilian driver, who ended up in the barriers.
From that point on, the performances of the Italian driver and George Russell never came alive. While the rest of the field was split between those who had completed both mandatory stops and those who had made only one, the two Mercedes cars were the only ones still on their starting set of tyres. Unfortunately, it was not the best choice.
By doing so, they constantly found themselves stuck in traffic behind drivers who were lapping about four or five seconds slower than their real pace, in order to help their teammates by ensuring them a “free” pit stop. In the final laps of the race, Russell lost his patience. At the harbour chicane, he completely cut the corner to take the position from Alex Albon.
“I’d rather take a penalty than stay stuck back here,” the Briton admitted over the radio. Unfortunately, the stewards didn’t go easy on him and handed him a harsh Drive Through penalty. At the end of the race, after completing their second mandatory pit stops in the final laps, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished in 11th and 18th positions respectively.
After the race, in an interview with SkySport, Toto Wolff explained the planned strategy. “Here in Monaco, you win or lose on Saturday. The strategy we adopted wasn’t really aimed at scoring points. We wanted to wait and hope for the Safety Car or a Virtual Safety Car to come out.”
“We tried something different but, as we saw, it didn’t work. Did I like the two mandatory stops? For the show and for the fans, it was definitely fantastic, but for us it was very difficult.”
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