Every season a disastrous race for Mercedes: 'It shows we're fighting'

Lewis Hamilton started from seventh position and Valtteri Bottas from third in Monaco. Not exactly positions you would expect from Mercedes, especially Hamilton's starting position. Things were already not going well for the championship team during qualifying and as time went on it got worse. Hamilton finished seventh and Bottas dropped out.

One hit every season

Interestingly, while things almost always go well at Mercedes, there is also always a Grand Prix that stands out as a disaster. In 2019 that was the race at Hockenheim and in 2020 the Sakhir Grand Prix. In 2021, though, it's fair to talk about a disaster weekend in Monaco. Hamilton could do nothing and for Bottas a podium opportunity fell through after a wheel nut refused to loosen.

In the Mercedes debrief James Vowles is asked if they see it the same way and what they are doing to prevent it. Vowles: "I think it’s a fair observation one race per season ends up being very poor. For me it’s just an indication that we’re a world championship fighting team. We are on the limit of pushing every boundary."

Mistakes are made

According to Vowles it is precisely the pushing of all boundaries that goes hand in hand with making mistakes. The team strategist continues: "It doesn’t matter wether it’s car performance, or pitstops or human endurance. Or the drivers taking everything they can to risk everything for every point that’s available to them. When you’re there, you will make mistakes.

"What important is, isn’t the mistakes you make but the corrective actions that happens afterwards. That’s how the team bonds following that. We will treat this race, as we do every race, we break it down into detail. We seperate into verious groups within the factory and understand what we all could’ve done better. That’s how you correct and move forward."

Make mistakes, learn from them and move on again. That, in a nutshell, is Vowles' philosophy, and with it, new "disaster weekends" are not preventable, but they are minimized. "With all the details, that ultimately corresponds to how the car will be, how the team will be across the remaining season," Vowles says in conclusion.