General
Wolff: "Updates in any case not much worse than the car before"
- Toby McLuskie
Mercedes travelled towards Monaco with a big update package. After the first and second free practice sessions, Toto Wolff is reasonably satisfied with what he has seen from the updated W14. George Russell had a difficult first day in the principality but Wolff is not worried.
Lewis Hamilton was the best Mercedes driver in FP1 with third place. In FP2, the seven-time world champion was again a lot faster than teammate George Russell. Hamilton finished sixth in the late afternoon session half a second behind number one Max Verstappen. These are not thunderous results for Mercedes, but Wolff is not dissatisfied.
"At least the updates are not much worse than the car was before. That's a good sign for Monaco. It's one of the first times the car doesn't do anything we don't like," Wolff said to the German branch of Sky. In the second free practice, Mercedes drove with two different set-ups to see which setup works best. It will be exciting at the front anyway, the team boss believes: "It will all be within two, three tenths in the end."
Russell has yet to find anything
That Russell was nowhere near matching Hamilton's pace on Friday does not worry Wolff: "George needs a few laps to get up to speed. The important thing is that he is making strides and in qualifying he is all in, I am not worried about that."