Hakkinen sympathises with Mercedes: 'That car is just not made for Monaco'

Where Red Bull Racing had a great weekend in Monaco, Mercedes had a weekend to forget very quickly. With Lewis Hamilton on P7 they lost the lead in the drivers classification and with Sergio Perez on P4 they also lost the lead in the teams' classification. Mika Hakkinen, therefore, speaks of a difficult weekend for the reigning world champions.

"It was a tough weekend for Mercedes. It will certainly be a nasty experience for the team too, with Hamilton's car not being fast all weekend. It was even worse for Bottas. He did so well in qualifying, four-tenths faster than Lewis and almost nothing behind Max. That, while driving a car not made for Monaco," Hakkinen explained in his column on Unibet.

Pit stop of Bottas 'unbelievable'

Hakkinen also thinks he knows why."The Mercedes car has a much bigger wheelbase than the Red Bull or Ferrari car and the aerodynamics are not made for the slow corners on this circuit". Despite this, Bottas drove in second place for a long time, until things went completely wrong at the pit stop. "That was almost unbelievable. To have a tyre stuck to the car and the mechanics not getting it off is really unusual."

Hakkinen has also had several embarrassing moments in his F1 career, so he sympathises with his compatriot at Mercedes."I experienced that my car broke down on the last lap of the race, while I was in the lead. So I know how Valtteri will feel now. You can't believe that something like that stopped you from getting a good result. It was almost certain that he would finish in second place."