Did Mercedes have to go for undercut? 'We were out of rubber on those tyres'

For Mercedes the GP-weekend in Monaco was a race that went from bad to worse. Lewis Hamilton was uncomfortable in the car all weekend and was unable to post great results. Valtteri Bottas did a decent job, but a broken wheel nut forced him out of the race.

It was notable that both drivers of the German team went in relatively early. Hamilton was even the first to go for new tyres, in an attempt to make up time. This was not out of luxury for Mercedes, the team explained to Auto, Motor und Sport. "Our wear was extremely high. Valtteri couldn't even drive outside Vettel's window and Sainz was putting a lot of pressure from behind."

"We knew we would soon have problems with Valtteri's tyres and it didn't look much better for Lewis. So the original plan could be forgotten," the German team revealed. Other teams were less affected by the wear and could have stayed on the tyre they started the race on.

For Mercedes, however, this was not an option because they had simply run out of tyres. "We only had a few laps of graining. There was just no rubber left on our tyres. In that, it was a bit like 2018, when Lewis also had to go in first."