Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the squad held a “very productive and tough debrief” and has vowed to learn after a troubled qualifying session in Monaco.
Mercedes missed out on a front-row spot in Monaco with championship leader Lewis Hamilton in particular struggling for performance.
While Valtteri Bottas salvaged third, and was in the mix for pole until Charles Leclerc’s crash, Hamilton was never in contention up front and slumped to seventh.
Hamilton explained post-session that he and Mercedes “missed the ball” after making changes for qualifying that did not yield dividends.
“We just had a very productive and tough debriefing and this is exactly the days when we learn the most,” said Wolff.
“This team has a brutal honesty and transparency within itself and we didn’t get things right.
“It’s not completely clear yet how all the tuning possibilities were interacting with each other, but I would say we were not having enough grip in each of those runs and probably linked to tyre temperature.
“Again, we need to analyse that, but one thing is for sure, we were not competitive. We did not provide Lewis with the right car to build up the confidence and based on a good gripping car that he would like to have.”
Wolff dismissed any concerns over Hamilton’s stance in public and sympathised with the Briton’s plight after a difficult session.
“We want the drivers to speak their mind and there was a lot of frustration,” he said.
“When you are finishing qualifying in P7 in Monaco you know pretty much that is the end of the weekend.
“Venting your frustration is absolutely OK, and no one in the team takes it the hard way because we express it the other way around too.
“He is the first to acknowledge and apologise when things go wrong, he has done it publicly and privately, but as a group that is one of our big assets that made us champions in the past – we can take it on the chin.
“There was one particular aspect of tyre heating we discussed this morning and on Thursday night where we could have taken a different direction and a direction he was interested to pursue but didn’t.
“That was exactly the content of our discussions now – go into an exploration mode when we expect much colder temperatures.”
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