Russell faces tough task: 'Are often better on Sunday'

"As we said yesterday, Monaco is such a unique circuit. It's not really the place to be evaluating any updates or changes and we knew that coming into the weekend," Russell interjected in Monaco at a press event organised by his employer. The 25-year-old driver went on to say that Mercedes' focus now is therefore entirely on improving qualifying pace.

There is still room for improvement when talking about single-lap speed: "Qualifying is a part of the weekend where we generally struggle, we always do better on a Sunday, when you look at the last 18 months, so we need to try and figure some stuff out overnight."

After all, P15 and P12 are not enough when qualifying on Saturday. Who will Mercedes fight with on Sunday? "We hope with Aston Martin and Ferrari, that's where we're aiming towards. Obviously Red Bull are a little bit in a league of their own at the moment. The midfield is tight and we've seen a number of times this year that a McLaren or an Alpine or even a Haas jumps ahead of us on a Saturday, but they're nowhere on a Sunday," Russell said.