McLaren team principal reveals how Lewis Hamilton's lap times in Monaco alerted his team of Mercedes' potential

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella claimed that Lewis Hamilton's lap times in Monaco were an early indicator of their potential for the Canadian GP last weekend. He pointed out that the performance on the streets of Principality alerted the team and spoke volumes about their potential.

The Mercedes duo of Hamilton and George Russell finished P7 and P5 respectively but were competitive during the qualifying session on Saturday after bringing upgrades on the Monaco GP weekend.

Speaking with Autosport, the McLaren team boss was aware of the threat from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes heading into Montreal. He said:

“I was already saying on Thursday to some of your colleagues that I think Mercedes is part of the fastest teams. Some of the lap times they did in the Monaco, some of the lap times they did in the previous events, they were at that stage of the weekend for us, out of range.

“We could not do that lap time at that time of the weekend, not even with low fuel and engine up. Clearly they had potential, and I think they're starting to learn how to use it.”

Stella was proven right as Lewis Hamilton topped the FP3 session with a time faster than over three-tenths of his nearest rival Max Verstappen. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff termed the performance in the long runs as "stratospheric" and "galactical".

Andrea Stella further claimed that he was "not surprised that Mercedes could unlock some performance working on the front wing. There is a possibility that they have also kind of fixed some issues that they were having with the previous front wing."

---

F1 pundit gives his take on Lewis Hamilton's result in Canada

F1 pundit Peter Windsor stated that it was a shame that Lewis Hamilton failed to finish on the podium as he was pipped by his teammate George Russell on the penultimate lap at the Canadian GP.

In his Live Stream on YouTube, Windsor said (via GPBlog):

"It's such a shame for Lewis, because he was looking really good, and he could have been third in that race. And he got beaten, because he'd run out of mediums. The upside was that the hard tires were actually quite good.

"But yeah, Lewis put up a bit of a fight as well. I was thinking, there's no way in the world Lewis is going to get passed by George here. But he did. I felt very sorry for Lewis at the end of the race because he'd got held up a lot by Fernando Alonso early on when it was wet and he was stuck behind Fernando."

The seven-time world champion currently stands in P8 in the Driver's Championship with 55 points in nine races and two Sprints.