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Lewis Hamilton has some choice words to describe the Mercedes car during the 2023 F1 Monaco GP.
The upgraded package has not handed any kind of visible, tangible gain to the team and both drivers struggled to put up a strong showing during qualifying on Saturday, May 27.
Hamilton will start Sunday's race in P5 while teammate George Russell will be further behind in P8. Talking about his experience of driving the upgraded Mercedes around the principality, Hamilton told the media:
“It was so tough. This car is a son of a gun. I was pushing so hard to get… ultimately overdriving. And when you are overdriving, it is the worst place to be because the car doesn’t do what you want. But if I underdrive or I drive the car to its limit we might not get the car into the top 10. So, just living on that edge of just being over the limit the whole time, so I’m touching the barriers."
He added:
“And also, I had to make some changes to try and make up the middle sector because the middle sector was our biggest loss. Picked up the middle sector but the first and last were worst. Ultimately, I think our aero balance needs working on, but the upgrades were good this weekend, so I’m grateful for those.”
"A challenging Grand Prix for us" - Lewis Hamilton's boss on Mercedes' Monaco struggles
Lewis Hamilton's boss and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was somewhat content with how the qualifying session went for the team.
Admitting that the expectations were not too high from the session, Wolff stated that the gap to the front of the grid was roughly what the team expected this week. Talking to the media, and rueing arguably a not-so-optimal session execution, he said:
“We know starting fifth and eighth for tomorrow’s race makes it a challenging Grand Prix for us. Overtaking is notoriously difficult here, but we will be doing everything we can to move forward. Despite our starting positions, we can be motivated by the size of the gap to the front. If you had told me ahead of the weekend that we would be three-tenths off pole position, I would have taken it."
Hamilton will be hoping to secure a strong points haul in the race and will be looking to capitalize by making a strong start to the race. The team arguably had the fifth-fastest car this weekend, behind even the likes of Esteban Ocon's Alpine.
