F1 World Championship leader Hamilton slumped on his worst qualifying result in almost three years in Monaco on Saturday and finished seventh after being nearly three quarters of a second behind pole position.
Team mate Valtteri Bottas was able to achieve third place in qualifying for Mercedes, while Hamilton’s first title rival Max Verstappen took second place on the grid.
Hamilton was dejected after qualifying, saying his chances of victory were over and the session had been a “disaster”.
He later said he needed to have some “tough discussions” with Mercedes because “things that should have been done should not be done”.
Following the team’s qualification debriefing, Mercedes F1 boss Wolff admitted Hamilton’s frustration and said the problems were probably related to the warming up of the tires.
“We just had a very productive and tough debriefing and those are exactly the days when we learn the most,” said Wolff when asked about Hamilton’s comments by Autosport.
“There is a brutal honesty and transparency about this team and we didn’t get things right. It is not yet entirely clear how all of the tuning options interacted with each other.
“But in general I would say that we didn’t have enough grip on each of these runs. And it probably has to do with the tire temperature.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
“We have to analyze it again, but one thing is certain, none of us were competitive. We didn’t give Lewis the right car to build confidence and based on a good, grippy car that he would like to have. “
Wolff said that after a “more productive” final session on Saturday morning, Bottas was able to put his tires “into a better window” and avoid the traffic problems Hamilton faced in Q1.
“If you can drive good times in a row, like in Q1, then everything will be easier,” said Wolff.
“All in all, we didn’t work well enough together today.”
When asked if he was surprised by Hamilton’s comments on the unity of the Mercedes team, Wolff said he wasn’t and that it would be good for drivers to speak their minds and show frustration.
“When you finish seventh in Monaco, you know pretty well that the weekend may be over, and then it’s absolutely fine to vent your frustration,” said Wolff.
“Nobody on the team takes it the hard way because we put it the other way around. He’s the first to acknowledge and apologize when something goes wrong. He did that publicly and privately.
“As a group, I think that one of our great advantages, which has made us masters in the past, is that we can turn it upside down.
“We discussed one aspect of tire heating this morning and Thursday evening that we could have taken a different direction, a direction he wanted to go that we didn’t.
“That was exactly the content of our discussions now, how can we go into an exploration mode when we expect much colder temperatures.”
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