Mercedes ‘more fired-up than ever’ to bounce back after ‘dissecting’ Monaco GP

The reigning world champions endured a nightmare weekend and struggled for competitiveness around the streets of Monte Carlo, with Lewis Hamilton only able to take seventh while Valtteri Bottas was forced to retire from second thanks to a botched pit stop.

Mercedes’ dramatic collapse, coupled with victory for Max Verstappen, meant that Red Bull leapfrogged its chief rival in both world championships for the first time during the V6 hybrid era.

Red Bull heads Mercedes by one point in the constructors’ championship going into the Baku weekend, while Verstappen holds a four-point advantage over Hamilton.

“Weekends like Monaco are the ones that keep you coming back for more,” Wolff said.

“Nothing comes easy in this sport, and that’s why we love it. We know that if you are not at, or close to, 100% then it will bite you.

“On Monday morning I saw the same energy as when we returned from the Bahrain test and that pleases me. We dissected the weekend, asked hard questions of ourselves, and learned some crucial lessons. I wish we could have been back racing last weekend.”

Wolff does not expect Baku to suit Mercedes’ W12 challenger as well as Red Bull’s 2021 car but says the team is determined to recover from its Monaco misery with a strong showing.

“While it’s a very different street circuit to Monaco, we expect it to be another tricky one for us, not particularly suiting the characteristics and traits of the W12,” Wolff added.

“Red Bull will be strong again, while both Ferrari and McLaren have made great progress recently. A key focus for us has to be exploiting the opportunities available to us on those outlier tracks which aren’t suited to our car – when the points are there, we need to grab them.

“There will be swings back and forth in this fight which is exciting for the sport and exciting for us. We’re expecting another challenge on the city streets and after the results of the last race, we’re more determined and fired-up than ever to bounce back in Baku.”

Despite arriving in Baku off the back of its second victory from the opening five races, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stressed his side is under no illusions that Mercedes will “bounce back hard”.

“I think Azerbaijan is a very different kind of street circuit to Monaco,” he said. “Very, very long straights.

“It’s been a very strong track for Mercedes in the past so we are not under any illusions that I am sure they’re going to bounce back hard there.

“We’ve got to go there and attack the weekend exactly as we have every race so far this season.”