Three-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton admits a lot of ‘studying’ is needed after a difficult opening day in Monaco.
Hamilton topped the opening practice session, two-tenths clear of championship leader Sebastian Vettel. However, he suffered a significant downturn in form in the second session, over 1.1 seconds adrift of Vettel.
The British driver was perplexed by his and team-mate Valtteri Bottas’ lack of pace.
“I can’t because I don’t understand it,” he replied when asked if he could explain his issues.
“FP1 was really good, the car was feeling great.
“Then there was night and day difference, black and white. FP2 was a little bit different, we couldn’t work the tyres for some reason, lots of sliding about.
“A lot of studying to do to find out where we went wrong, but I’m confident in my guys.”
Mercedes has struggled to fully understand its tyres throughout 2017, and their struggles with the Pirelli rubber are continuing this weekend.
“I don’t know if it’s set-up. It’s just with the tyres, I don’t know why the tyres weren’t working.
“That’s something we have to study and figure out for Saturday.
“It gives the guys here more time to work on the car, spread over two days, rather than everything tonight.”
Mercedes technical director James Allison blamed an unconventional setup for the team’s lack of pace.
“After a very positive morning session with both cars and drivers, the afternoon proved more difficult and we clearly took a step in the wrong direction with the car set-up over the break,” he said.
“We will have a good think about it tomorrow in order to put things right for Saturday.”
