Wolff gives no clues away on Mercedes' 2025 driver lineup

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toto wolff on mercedes qualifying at monaco grand prix 2024
25 May at 13:36
Last update 25 May at 13:55
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  • Olly Darcy
  • Editor

Saturday is the most important day at the Monaco Grand Prix. The battle for track position in qualifying is a vital one, with very limited overtaking on offer during Sunday's race around the iconic streets of Monte Carlo. From free practice, the front-running teams all look very close in terms of pace. Mercedes and Toto Wolff are one of them, showing great improvement in their pace and look set to battle it out for P1. 

Wolff looking forward to 'intense' qualifying in Monaco

Speaking to Sky Sports after the final free practice session in the principality, Wolff spoke about the fine margins that split Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren going into the important qualifying session later on Saturday. "The trick is going to be free laps whilst having tyres in a good window. Between P2 and P10 was intense, so you can look pretty good or pretty miserable and have basically the same lap time," said the Austrian team boss.

One thing that won't help preparation for the German team is losing lap times and sets of tyres. Despite a nice P3 finish in FP3 for Lewis Hamilton, highlighting the pace of the Mercedes car, he locked up going into Sainte Devote halfway through the session, destroying a set of tyres and missing out on valuable track time as a result. Wolff spoke about that too, saying, "It never helps when you have a massive lock up. You lose the tyre for the whole session. On the other side, we have to work on set-up because we burned the tyres on the long run, so we may have to dial back a bit. The front left starts graining and then you lose a second per lap, so it becomes undrivable." 

There was one last question about any more potential news on the driver lineup for 2025, with Mercedes still looking for a replacement for Hamilton, who will drive for Ferrari in 2025. Wolff gave nothing away, only smiling and saying, "It's going to be so quick the driver line-up!"