Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes still can't afford to neglect work on tyres at Monaco GP

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes cannot afford to lose focus on improving their race performance for the Monaco GP, even though the unique nature of the street circuit may not expose the W04's frailties to the same extent as recent grands prix.

Those sentiments have been echoed by Mercedes' motorsport director Toto Wolff who made clear that Mercedes simply wouldn't finish towards the front if they struggle with tyre wear to the extent they did in Barcelona, when polesitter Nico Rosberg also lost significant ground - the German slipping from first to sixth at the flag. "The narrow streets will give our drivers the perfect opportunity to display their talents and, historically, the team's cars have performed strongly there in terms of pure speed," Wolff said. "However, it is clear to everybody in the team that, while we have a strong car right now, we are not able to use that performance properly on Sunday afternoon. "Although overtaking in Monaco is difficult, we cannot afford to be complacent in terms of tyre management and we will need to do significantly better than we managed in Barcelona in order to score a strong result. "We have only scored points with one of our cars at the past three races and this is something we must improve quickly, beginning next weekend in Monte-Carlo."