The Monaco Grand Prix qualifying was not very kind to Mercedes. While Valtteri Bottas managed to score third place, Lewis Hamilton was left in seventh place.
According to Mercedes team boss, Toto Wolff, Monaco is not the right place to compensate for a poor qualifying session.
What did Wolff say?
“On the track we can’t take much risk, because seventh place is worth six points anyway and we’d rather have six points than no points,” Wolff mentioned in an interview with Autosport.
“If Max wins the race or comes second, the gap will still be big enough,.
However, the outfit is ready to take calculated risks depending on the situation.
Wolff confident about his cars
“So on the track we don’t, but if you look at the strategy, we can take that risk,” Wolff added.
“We do have limits of course, because of traffic. However, we do have a car that is faster than seventh position.”
Bottas has proved just that by securing third place behind Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
After Leclerc’s crash, Carlos Sainz ended up aborting his fast lap which then cost him his third place.
As a result, a Mercedes was placed in third place; but it did not belong to Lewis Hamilton.
Few opportunities to overtake: Wolff
Wolff has also revealed that the outfit will be taking risks with Hamilton as the starting position usually gives a wrong perception of the race.
“If we can finish in a better position, that would be very nice. Monaco is obviously not the place where you have a lot of opportunities to overtake.”
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Read More: “It only made me extra happy”: Ricciardo recalls Verstappen anger after he stole pole position