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Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team had a weekend to forget, and their team performances have not gone without heavy criticism from fans and analysts alike. The already almost clichéd post-race team statement described it as a “frustrating weekend,” which only seemed to increase the intensity of social media reactions.
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Under the new two-stop mandatory rule, it seemed Mercedes lacked pace, and there appeared to have been widely baffling race strategy. “Pathetic strategy, if there was any,” snorted one user; another one sarcastically commented, “Oh nice, you accidentally owned up to a shit strategy.” But the concern was far beyond just about results-the frustration had to do with the lack of flexible thinking in a race where track position is basically everything.
If anything, some fans asked if Monaco should really be retained on the F1 calendar: overtaking is so near to impossible with these modern cars. The commentator stated, “The race was the pits. After the first pit stops, it just became the monotonous procession Monaco always dishes us. Time to call it a day? Have the cars outgrown Monaco?”
Others brought the reliability issue back up, with Mercedes seemingly getting caught up in it all once again, this time with Russell’s mechanical issue. “This is the 3rd time it happened-Bahrain, Imola, and now Monaco,” cried a fan. “Not even Ferrari with their tractor and many problems have finished a race this way.”
However, some remained hopeful. “We rise from this. Humbling lesson,” said one fan, while another said they should focus on “Hopefully, Barcelona will be even better next time out.”
Following, a volley of disappointments, fury, and frustration fell. “Pathetic. Frustrating. Absolute dogshit,” screamed out an irate fan. Another one accused of them being hypocrites: “You did the exact thing that you complained Williams did to you.”
Even international fans put in their twopence worth-in an Arabic language “God is sufficient for me against you and your car that brings nothing but misery.”
Monaco Grand Prix has always been a unique challenge this time-and-this-once could almost pinpoint the Mercedes’ predicament. Whether it is the car, the strategy, or just plain ill fortune-the team seriously needs some deep thinking before the next race, and judging from the online outburst, patience is running thin.
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For now, all eyes will be on Barcelona, where Mercedes will have a chance to prove that Monaco was just a one-off and not the beginning of a deeper crisis. But if Monaco is any form of a template for how it’s going to proceed, their optimism would count for very little.
This story originally appeared on Celebrityinsider
