The Mercedes - AMG Petronas Formula One team has struggled over this season so far, only five races through the season and it is already one of, if not the worst start the championship winning team has had in the recent years. As of now the historic team has won 3/5 of the races on the season with Lewis Hamilton getting all the three wins for the team and Valtteri Bottas getting just a three podiums so far. Now that may sound good right? The team has won over 70% of the races this season, but when you look at it in every race the team has had at least one issue with one of its drivers.
Most recently at the Monaco Grand Prix we saw Valtteri Bottas qualify 3rd with Lewis Hamilton getting p7 in qually. Due to pole winner Charles Leclerc getting a DNS due to gearbox issues everyone behind him would move up one position. During the race Bottas seemed to be the strongest Mercedes out of the two, but when pit stops came we saw Bottas have a massive nut failure on the front right tire, which led to a DNF as you cannot run two different tire compounds at the same time on the track. That was totally out of control of the driver and crew and to this day the nut/tire is still connected to the car, this was a true fluke that had a less chance of occurring than winning the lottery.
Lewis Hamilton was in true damage control trying to salvage whatever he can for the team as with Bottas being out that meant zero driver points and zero constructor points from him. As the pit cycle went on Lewis expressed frustration with the team as he wanted to pit late and gain, but instead they sent him in early. We saw Sebastian Vettel gain ground by staying out longer, he would get a top five finish.
At the end of the race Lewis would get p7, he was the final car on the lead lap 68.231 seconds away from first place. With that finish Lewis Hamilton lost what was a 14 point plus on Red Bull driver and Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen, despite getting the fastest lap and the bonus point. Now the Mercedes driver sits 4 points out of first with teammate Valtteri Bottas over 50 points out. Lewis said that he will have a long talk with the team, it will be interesting to see how they will come back in the next race, as of now Red Bull seems to be the team to beat.
DRIVERS STANDINGS (TOP5)
Verstappen 105
Hamilton 105
Norris 56
Bottas 47
Perez 44
CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS (TOP5)
Red Bull 149
Mercedes 148
McLaren 80
Ferrari 78
Aston Martin 19
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