Toto Wolff And Lewis Hamilton 'Worried' Ahead Of Monaco GP

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says the team are “bloody worried” ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Silver Arrows team have struggled at the iconic street circuit in the last two seasons and Wolff admitted the concerns still remain ahead of this year’s race on May 27.

The Mercedes chief is concerned the team has still not been able to diagnose the problems they have had in the past. Monaco is not the only concern for the team with the reigning champions traditionally struggling on circuits that require high down force.

In 2017, the reigning Constructors’ champions struggled in the Principality with Ferrari locking out the front row. Sebastian Vettel won the race from Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes are worried it could be the case again this year.

Mercedes took the lead in the Constructors’ standings after a dominant 1-2 at the recently concluded Spanish Grand Prix, but Wolff admits they could be outperformed when the sixth race of the season comes around this weekend.

“Bloody worried," Wolff said talking about the upcoming race in Monte Carlo, as quoted on Sky Sports. "We have seen in the last years that there were some tracks which suited us well and some we were not perfect for. ... It's very difficult to undo the DNA of a car and Monaco, Singapore and Budapest were all tracks where we underperformed a lot last year. It's a great challenge. Why our car doesn't like to be quick around the corners of Monaco, we haven't found out yet.”

Four-time F1 Drivers’ world champion and current championship leader Lewis Hamilton has echoed the Mercedes chief’s concerns and has tipped Red Bull Racing to be the team to beat in Monaco.

The Austrian owned team are known to have best chassis on the grid and are always competitive on circuits that require high downforce and those that are not power sensitive. Ferrari are also likely to be in the mix having seen success last season.

"Monaco is going to be a serious challenge," Hamilton said. "Red Bull are going to be rapid and very hard to beat.”

"The Red Bulls are particularly good and able to add more downforce, I think the Ferraris have a little bit more downforce as well so it will be really interesting to see if we can match them,” the Briton explained. "We know it's probably going to be a difficult weekend. We know the others could be quicker than us. Whatever we are faced with, we'll take it. As we've seen this year, sometimes you can get great points in races you don't win. We'll be focused on getting the maximum regardless of whether we are fastest or not."