Prior to the race in Monaco, it was the best start to a year in terms of points for Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. However, a poor showing in Monaco meant that not only did Hamilton finish in seventh but he also lost the lead in the championship to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. While Lewis Hamilton didn’t have the best weekend, things were made worse by the strategy call to pit early which saw Lewis lose positions. His teammate Valtteri Bottas had an even worse race as a pit stop error resulted in a DNF when he was comfortably running in second place. Both drivers have now called for improvements from the team and team principal Toto Wolff has also responded Link to poll: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgwH7tUlT_i3zhccEkR4AaABCQ 0:00 - Were Drivers To Blame For Mercedes’ Monaco Troubles? 2:22 - Fast Feed I'm your host Dillon Shelley and first up on Formula World: Were Drivers To Blame For Mercedes’ Monaco Troubles? Hamilton began by stating that there is no finger pointing in the team “This team has shown time and time again, how we come back fighting. There's no finger pointing, we win and we lose together - we just need to find our feet and stay cool, we have 18 races left and there's a long way to go in this fight” Hamilton also gave his opinion on the performance of the team “We lost a lot of points today for a really, really poor performance from the team. Three places it cost us. We underperformed as a team all weekend from the get-go so we’ll just put our focus onto the next race” Bottas also gave his opinion on how his race unfolded “It’s a big mistake by us as a team that we need to learn from. Whether it’s human error or technical issue, it doesn’t matter; we need to find the issue and if it’s a human error we need to support the guy who did it. We need to learn from this. That’s the main thing in my mind and at the same time, yes, super disappointed” Wolff then explained why they went for the undercut with Hamilton despite the possibility of it backfiring “With Lewis, we just didn't have the pace in the car - it's as simple as that. The undercut looked like the only feasible way of clearing Gasly and there wasn't any mistake, the outlap was good, the pit stop was okay but it just wasn't enough” He also revealed how the wheel nut on Bottas’ car got damaged “Valtteri stopped a bit too early. This meant the mechanic had to use the wrench at an angle. The awkward angle damaged the wheel nut and we couldn't get the tyre off” He summed the weekend by pointing out that there is still a lot of races left in 2021 “You have to take a weekend like this on the chin - today we lost a few points but this is a long championship, it is going to swing back and forth and in the end we will see in Abu Dhabi who has their nose ahead” Fast Feed Lewis Hamilton feels that “[Baku’s] another street circuit, another one that’s a very cold, very smooth circuit, so another one that [Mercedes] could struggle at” “So, [they’re] just going to have to work and try and see how [they] can minimize that loss… [They’ve] got a good battle on [their] hands” Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is “super happy to win the Monaco Grand Prix. It’s such a tricky track and you need a smooth weekend” “So, [he’s] very pleased with what [they] have achieved as a team and of course with Honda” His teammate Sergio Perez thinks that “once [he’s] more comfortable with the car in qualifying, [he’ll] be in serious contention and fighting for victories” Red Bull team principal Chrostian Horner thinks that “as a team [they] have great strength in depth and finishing first or second in the first five races of the season is a phenomenal example of teamwork” He added that “there is a long way to go in this championship but [they] should always enjoy the wins” Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has revealed that “not starting the race was difficult to take, especially at home” He added that they “still have to investigate what exactly was the issue. Overall, it was a good weekend for [them] though” He also pointed out that teammate “Carlos [Sainz] was strong and consistent and [he’s] happy for him and the whole team for scoring his first podium for Scuderia Ferrari” Sainz, meanwhile, confirmed that “the bittersweet feeling is still there though as [he feels] for Charles and for the team” He is also “obviously happy with P2 because [he thinks] it was the maximum [they] could achieve today from where [they] started” His team principal Mattia Binotto accepts that “it’s going to be difficult to be as competitive as [they] were [in Monaco]” Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel is “happy with fifth place [in Monaco] and it is great for the team to have both cars inside the points” For AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, “it was a pretty long race and obviously with Lewis behind it wasn’t easy” Who will be the team to beat in Baku?