George Russell accepts that the unique nature of the Monaco circuit means Mercedes is unlikely to learn much about the extensive upgrades it has brought this weekend.
After conceding that the decision to retain faith in its zero sidepod concept was the wrong one for 2023, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff had promised that the team would introduce revised bodywork alongside a new front suspension and new floor.
But the German outfit’s hopes of unveiling its new parts at last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix were dashed when the event was cancelled due to severe flooding in the region.
As a street circuit, Monaco represents an outlier on the calendar compared to other venues and Russell admits that next weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona is likely to be a more prominent indicator of the baseline potential of the new updates.
“I don’t think you’ll learn a lot at all from a race weekend like this,” he expressed. “So whatever we take away from this weekend, we’ll take it with a pinch of salt, and go into Barcelona with a clean slate.
“Because Monaco is very challenging. I think everybody struggled last year with these new cars, the ride is exceptionally poor, compared to the 13-inch era of cars.”
However, Russell denies that Mercedes upheld any reservations about introducing the upgrades this weekend after the Imola round was abandoned.
“I think you always need to go into a circuit like this with a degree of respect, and you need to build up to it,” the Brit explained. “But you know, I trust in the team. And I don’t think there’s going to be anything that’s scary with regard to this new update, but that’s totally throws us off-piste.
“So as I said, we will treat this weekend as a bit of a sort of one of a kind, and then we evaluate again in Barcelona. But I can’t imagine there’ll be anything that will necessarily hold us back.
“And to be honest, I’m glad that we are sort of proceeding with the update this weekend, because you always want to put as much performance on the car as possible.
“And it would have been a demoralising weekend for all of us had we known we’ve got a bit of performance on the table just sitting there in the factory.”
Lewis Hamilton echoed his team-mate’s comments, professing that it will be difficult for the Silver Arrows to draw conclusions from its B-spec car around a less conventional track.
Although the seven-time World Champion is optimistic the new parts will represent a turning point in Mercedes’ season, Hamilton is not anticipating it being enough to place him or Russell in the battle for victory.
“The upgrades, it will be difficult to see how it works at this track, but I am hopeful that it puts us a little bit closer to these guys,” the three-time Monaco winner said. “I don’t think we will be fighting for the win, but hopefully it puts us a bit closer.”
Meanwhile, Russell assesses that Mercedes will need to ensure it’s in more competitive shape in qualifying in order to deliver a strong race result on Sunday.
With the exception of Australia where its two cars lined up second and third on the grid, the two Mercedes drivers have typically been forced to recover ground in the race after qualifying below the team’s nearest rivals.
“We’re going to be doing everything we can to try and improve our qualifying performance for this weekend specifically, because we know that if we’re on the backfoot, we’re not going to be able to overcome those positions on Sunday,” Russell underlined.
“So as I said a lot of talk around our new upgrades this weekend. We know it’s going to be a challenging weekend. And that’s just inherently in our sort of DNA with Monaco and the challenges this race brings us.”
Hamilton finished FP1 third in his enhanced Mercedes, 0.6s off the leading pace set by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, while Russell in the sister W14 wound up a lowly 15th overall.
