Wolff admits Mercedes error as Russell’s Monaco race unravels in penalty storm

Russell’s weekend in the Principality steadily unravelled as the race progressed. After a subdued qualifying session, the Mercedes driver found himself stuck behind Isack Hadjar and Lando Norris at various stages of the race. In a bid to avoid losing further time in Monaco’s notoriously tight streets, Russell opted to pit, but was soon caught out for a pit lane speed limit infringement.

The British driver’s attempt to recover from that setback only compounded his problems, as he was subsequently penalised for incorrectly serving the penalty, ultimately resulting in a drive-through sanction that effectively ended any hopes of salvaging a strong result.

Asked to explain the sequence of events that led to the costly mistake, Wolff admitted Mercedes were still unclear on the full details, but accepted that the responsibility ultimately lay with the team due to communication failures.

“Not quite sure what the reason was for the penalty and for the many other penalties, whether it's cutting, and then obviously the pit lane time is too quick, because there will have been a dozen pit lane speeding incidents, that's number one. So I can't really give you an answer,” Wolff stated to GPblog, among others.

“As for not serving the stop, clearly our mistake. We need to look at our communication, whether we actually expected him to come in. Because I think what I remember is about staying out and not coming in. But nevertheless, you've got to be on it then to hold him, and we didn't,” the Mercedes team boss concluded.

Earlier, Russell rued his barrage of penalties received at the Monaco Grand Prix, flagging the software issues at the Monte Carlo race for the sanctions he received. The British driver also noted how the gap to teammate Kimi Antonelli has widened after his consecutive challenging outings.

“The team said there was nothing I did wrong with the speeding in the pit lane, a software issue. We don't know where from. Five-second penalty, not ideal, but not the end of the world. And then obviously the drive-through, not serving it properly when I was in P3. Two weekends in a row, 40 points down the drain,” Russell told GPblog in Monaco.

“Then I was on the radio saying I'm willing to serve the penalty, as I had a 20-second gap to Gasly behind me. But the rules say we didn't serve the penalty, and the punishment is for the driver. I've probably, with the software glitch, gained one tenth of a second in the whole pit lane. I've lost 13 positions,” he concluded.

Russell ended the race on Sunday in 12th place, after the drive-through penalty saw him fall far off the points-scoring positions. The scoreless outing in Monte Carlo also saw his gap to Antonelli in the drivers’ standings widen to 68 points.