Toto Wolff wary of Mercedes “setbacks” despite “trajectory going up” after Monaco

Toto Wolff has warned that Mercedes could face a number of “setbacks” as they look to close the gap to the top three teams.

Mercedes enjoyed arguably their strongest weekend of the year last time out in Monaco as George Russell qualified and finished in fifth.

Russell qualified just under 0.3s off pole position, and for the first time this year, it appeared that the balance of the Mercedes W15 was in a better place.

Lewis Hamilton showed great pace across the three practice sessions before struggling in qualifying.

Reflecting on Mercedes’ Monaco weekend, Wolff believes it shows that they are “going in the right direction”.

“Yeah, I think we were more or less different, but I think we were that close also in qualifying when you look at the gaps… probably much closer in the race,” Wolff said. “But at the end… I think overall the trajectory is going in the right direction. I think we’ve understood where the balance of the car needs to be.

“We’ve been bringing bits and pieces in order to enhance that and as I said yesterday saw the trajectory going up, but it’s maybe like a shell, right?  So it’s going to be up and down, better tracks, worse tracks, so we’re absolutely happy with the approach.

“So the thing is that you just got to chip away performance by performance.  McLaren did a sensational step last year from one race to the other. They kept adding performance on a concept that functioned.  Ferrari has been doing it step by step by step and we did it very well last year. 

“This is where I see ourselves. And that’s something that we have absolutely as an objective in the short term as well.”

Wolff vowed that Mercedes will continue to upgrade their car in the upcoming rounds - but conceded there could be “setbacks” for the team.

“I think what we’re doing now is probably solving that,” he added. “I don’t think that the duvet is large enough to cover feet and head at that stage. But we’re getting there.  And Montreal again is a little bit of an outlier for track. We’re going to add something and we’re going to add something for Barcelona.

“So just try to chip away, bearing in mind that could be also setbacks.”