Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff opens up about team's error to assist Lewis Hamilton after pit stop at Monaco

Toto Wolff clarified the 'miscommunication' with Mercedes during Lewis Hamilton's pit stop at the Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton pitted on Lap 51, aiming to undercut Max Verstappen with fresh Pirelli tyres. Verstappen pitted on the next lap, and they finished sixth and seventh, the first time since 2017 neither made the Monaco podium.

Hamilton, on hard tyres, was instructed by engineer Peter Bonnington to 'push' but also that the 'out-lap normal and the time should come to you.' After Verstappen rejoined with his RB20 ahead, Hamilton questioned why he wasn't told the out-lap was critical for the undercut. Wolff admitted the pit wall got it "wrong."

While speaking to the media he said, "It was a miscommunication first between us on the pit wall that we got that wrong. It should have been an 'out-lap critical trying to undercut', but then there was a debate on whether any out-lap would be enough from the new tyre. So the message he got was at best confusing, but probably wrong."

'This was the team’s fault' 

Before the pit stop, Hamilton had closed to within a second and a half of Verstappen, with fresh tyres proving to be nearly two seconds a lap faster. However, Mercedes chose not to call in George Russell from fifth place.

Russell managed to nurse his medium tyres through all 77 laps of the restarted race, fending off late pressure from Verstappen. Wolff explained the concerns that prevented the team from conveying the 'critical' message to Hamilton.

He said, "It should have been an out-lap critical message but the worry in the background was that if we thrashed that tyre in a single lap, then we were concerned about what would happen later. But in summary, it was the wrong message to Lewis, this was the team's fault. We wanted to be close to Max Verstappen and then do the undercut, but we got the messaging completely wrong.