F1 News: Mercedes Chief Optimistic Despite Tough Friday At Monaco Grand Prix

It was a difficult weekend for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell as they were tasked with re-learning their W14.

Mercedes arrived at the Monaco Grand Prix equipped with a substantial package of updates for their W14 contender. Following the first and second practice sessions, team principal Toto Wolff expressed reasonable satisfaction with the performance of the upgraded car. While George Russell faced difficulties on the first day with his car spending plenty of time in the garage, Wolff remains unphased.

In FP1, Lewis Hamilton showcased Mercedes' potential by securing the third-fastest time on the sheets. In FP2, the seven-time world champion once again outperformed his teammate, George Russell. But as the 7-time champion finished sixth, trailing half a second behind the leader Max Verstappen, he didn't finish the Friday in an optimistic mindset. 

While these results may not be outstanding for Mercedes, Wolff remains content:

"The updates are not significantly worse than the previous version of the car. That bodes well for Monaco. It's one of the first times the car behaves as we desire," stated Wolff in an interview with Sky's German branch.

During the second practice session, Mercedes experimented with two different setups to determine the optimal configuration. Wolff believes the competition at the front will be intense, predicting a close margin.

"It will all be within two, three-tenths in the end," he stated. 

Despite Russell's slower pace compared to Hamilton on Friday, Wolff remains unconcerned: 

"George needs some time to find his rhythm. The important thing is that he is making progress, and he will give his all in qualifying. I have no worries about that."

As the anticipation builds for the Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes' updated W14 car has shown promise, and with plenty more time to extract more data and performance out of each car, all eyes will be on the Brackley team this racing weekend.