Mercedes 'didn’t provide Hamilton the right car' for qualifying
Toto Wolff says Mercedes held a "very productive and tough" debrief with Lewis Hamilton after his Formula 1 qualifying struggles in Monaco, conceding the team didn't provide "the right car".


F1 championship leader Hamilton slumped to his worst qualifying result in almost three years on Saturday in Monaco, finishing seventh after lapping almost three quarters of a second off the pole position time.
Teammate Valtteri Bottas was able to qualify third for Mercedes, while Hamilton's primary title rival, Max Verstappen, took second on the grid.
Hamilton was downbeat following qualifying, saying his chances of winning the race were over and that the session had been a "disaster".
He later said he had to have some "tough discussions" with Mercedes as "things that should have been done, haven't been done".
Speaking following the team's qualifying debrief, Mercedes F1 boss Wolff acknowledged Hamilton's frustration, and said the issues were believed to relate to tyre warm-up.
"We just had a very productive and tough debriefing, and those are exactly the days where we learn the most," Wolff said when asked about Hamilton's comments by Motorsport.com.
"This team has a brutal honesty and transparency within itself, and we didn't get things right. It's not completely clear yet how all the tuning possibilities were interacting with each other.
"But I would generally say that we were not having enough grip in each of those runs. And probably linked to tyre temperature.
"Again, we need to analyse that, but one thing is for sure, all of us together, we were not competitive. We didn't provide Lewis with the right car to build up the confidence, and based on a good gripping car that he would like to have."

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
Wolff said that Bottas was able to get himself "in a better window" with his tyres after a "more productive" final practice on Saturday morning, as well as avoiding the traffic struggles Hamilton faced in Q1.
"When you're able to clock consecutive good times like in Q1, then things are coming together easier," Wolff said.
"So overall, all of us together, we haven't done a good enough job today."
Read Also:
Asked if he was surprised by Hamilton's comments given the unity of the Mercedes team, Wolff said he was not, and that it was good for drivers to speak their mind and show frustration.
"When you're finishing P7 in Monaco, you know pretty much that's potentially the end of the weekend, and then venting your frustration is absolutely OK," Wolff said.
"Nobody in the team takes it the hard way, because we express it the other way around too. He's the first one to acknowledge and apologise when things go wrong. He's done that in public and privately.
"As a group, I think that's one of our big assets that made us champions in the past, that we are able to take it on the chin.
"There was one particular aspect of tyre heating that we discussed this morning and on Thursday night where we could have taken a different direction, a direction that he was interested to pursue, 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."
Related video

Ferrari "will not gamble" on Leclerc’s gearbox despite pole
Hamilton to be critical of Mercedes "behind closed doors"

Latest news
The underdog F1 squad that thrust Senna into the limelight
The Toleman TG184 was the car that could, according to legend, have given Ayrton Senna his first F1 win but for Alain Prost and Jacky Ickx at Monaco in 1984. That could be stretching the boundaries of the truth a little, but as STUART CODLING explains, the team's greatest legacy was in giving the Brazilian prodigy passed over by bigger outfits an opportunity
Why Aston Martin is unlikely to repeat Jaguar’s F1 mistakes
Two famous manufacturer teams born out of humble midfield origins, splashing the cash while attempting to rise to the top of F1 in record time. There are clear parallels between Lawrence Stroll’s Aston Martin and the doomed Jaguar Racing project of 22 years ago, but Mark Gallagher believes struggling Aston can avoid a similar fate.
How rejuvenated Haas recovered its F1 mojo
US-owned but until recently Russian-backed, Haas seems to have reached a turning point in car performance after three gruesome seasons. And it needs to if it’s to attract fresh investment. Team boss Gunther Steiner tells Oleg Karpov how close Haas came to the abyss.
How F1 race leaders have now lost their comfort blanket
As Formula 1 teams have settled down in understanding the new generation of cars and the way they need to maximise their performance, fresh lessons have emerged. Jonathan Noble investigates how they have brought with them an all-new kind of grand prix racing
Gilles Villeneuve's 10 greatest F1 drives
Formula 1 lost one of its brightest stars when Gilles Villeneuve was killed during practice for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. Forty years on, Motorsport.com picks out the greatest drives by a Ferrari legend
The silver lining of Ferrari’s Miami GP defeat
OPINION: Much was made of Formula 1’s first Miami Grand Prix – what turned out to be a very ‘marmite’ event for both those in attendance and everyone following on TV. But even as the on-track battle between Red Bull and Ferrari it produced continued the negative run of results for the red team, it contained a glimmer it must hope continues to shine
How imperfect Miami offered F1's drivers a unique challenge
OPINION: Despite all of the stylistic embellishments festooning Formula 1's inaugural Miami Grand Prix, the Miami International Autodrome offered the drivers a unique challenge and punished driver errors; a stark contrast to the usual cast of modern-day circuits
Why F1’s turbulent relationship with Russia is nothing new
Russia’s involvement in Formula 1 has been big on promise but short on delivery – then reached the end of the road prematurely. MARK GALLAGHER investigates why