F1 LIVE: Toto Wolff plays down Mercedes’ Monaco GP hopes

McLaren boss Zak Brown has expressed disappointment at the clear “gap” between drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, with the Australian yet to meet the “expectations” of his move to the team.

Ricciardo finished 12th at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday and has only scored one top-ten result out of six races in Formula One this season.

The experienced Ricciardo has been outperformed by his younger team-mate Norris, who battled to finish eighth in Barcelona despite struggling with tonsillitis.

Norris is seventh in the drivers standings and is the leading points-scorer outside of Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, while Ricciardo is only 12th in the overall leaderboard.

McLaren had high hopes for the 2022 season but have seen rivals Ferrari pull away at the front of the grid following the overhaul in race regulations, but Brown is also frustrated that Ricciardo has been unable to deliver points for the team.

Canadian rapper Drake was left particularly disappointed by Charles Leclerc’s retirement from the Spanish Grand Prix, revealing that he had bet £185,000 on the Ferrari driver to win the race in Barcelona.

Drake claimed ahead of the race that he had placed a bet on F1 for the first time, placing a wager of CA$300,000 (£185,000) with a potential return of CA$750,000 (£467,000) if Leclerc claimed victory.

Sebastian Vettel has been subjected to a robbery after a bag belonging to the four-time Formula One world champion was taken in Barcelona on Monday morning.

Vettel, who was unharmed in the incident, set off in pursuit of the stolen property by using the Find My iPhone application connected to his AirPods.

But although the 34-year-old German managed to track down his earphones, the bag and other items inside have not been found.

Hamilton’s hopes of winning a record-breaking eighth world championship have all but disintegrated during a miserable start to the season for Mercedes and he trails teammate Russell by 28 points in the drivers’ standings.

His place at the pinnacle of the sport today remains undisputed, though, even as the new generation of drivers led by Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc begin to establish what appears to be a new era.

But when Russell was asked at a press conference what qualities he saw in Hamilton as a leader, the 37-year-old interjected and said: “Well, firstly, I wouldn’t say I’m the leader. George and I work equally hard together, I would say, to help drive the team and row just as hard as everyone else in the team.”

Red Bull’s chief technology officer Adrian Newey believes the regulation changes in regards to the weight of this season’s Formula One cars are taking the sport in the “wrong direction”.

F1 chiefs brought in the regulation changes to increase the chance for cars to overtake each other during races but Newey believes the move is part of a wider trend in which road cars are getting heavier.

“I think the principle of helping cars to overtake by reducing the sensitivity of the following car to the one in front is fine. I think it helps to be able to overtake a little better. I don’t think it’s a significant change but it will help a little,” Newey told Motorsport Magazin.

The minimum temperature for fuel last Sunday was 25 degrees and it is suspected the team cooled it below that level. This meant Verstappen and Sergio Perez had to stay in the garage to increase the temperature ahead of the grand prix.

The defending world champion left the pits with eight seconds to spare and Ferrari says they have to trust in the FIA that it was legal.

“I can imagine it [the late pit exit] was down to the fuel temperature,” Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said. “They need to be a maximum 10°C below the ambient. It should be at all times during the event. So not only when the car is going out but when the car is in the garage itself.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has warned as many as seven teams may have to pull out of races this season to meet Formula ‘s budget cap.

The cap has fallen to £111 million in the 2022 season compared to the £115m in 2021. Horner says the governing body the FIA should increase the budget to reflect inflation rises and that they have a “duty of care” to ensure the teams can finish the campaign.

“Seven of the teams would probably need to miss the last four races to come within the cap this year,’ he said, as perBBC Sport. “It’s not just about the big teams. It’s teams in the middle of the field who are really struggling with inflationary issues. The FIA has a duty of care. I know they are taking it seriously.

“Energy bills, costs of living, costs are going exponentially, and F1 is not exempt. Freight has quadrupled and that’s not something we can control.”

The Alpine driver pointed out most teams are working together to get the most out of the car and so if he joined a team as a number two it would be a team effort.

And when asked if he could work with an “alpha” in the sport, he said: “Yeah, sure. I think at the end of the day there are not many number one, two drivers in any team right now. All the teams need both drivers to work together and to improve the car, especially with the new regulations.

“You still learn every lap you do and you have to work towards a better car, a better package. So let’s see what are the possibilities into the next few years.”

Apart from winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza last season, Ricciardo has struggled at McLaren and sits 12th in the driver standings this season with just one top-ten finish out of the opening six races.

By contrast, Ricciardo’s teammate, Lando Norris, has achieved a podium finish and is seventh overall, only behind the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, and Brown has said there is a “gap” between the drivers.

“Lando definitely has an edge. Obviously we would like to see Daniel much closer to Lando and have a good intra-team battle,” Brown told Sky Sports. “Daniel’s just not comfortable yet with the car. We are trying everything we can – again it was a disappointing weekend.

“Short of kind of Monza and a few races, it’s generally not kind of met his or our expectations. I think all you can do is keep working hard as a team, keep communications going, keep pushing and hope whatever’s not kind of clicking at the moment clicks here shortly.”

A picture emerged of Hamilton walking behind the car which made it appear as though he had touched it. Max Verstappen was fined last season for doing the same with Hamilton’s wing at the Brazilian Grand Prix, which some fans were quick to highlight.

However, Mercedes insisted Hamilton didn’t in fact come into contact with the car.

‘’Some people seem to think he is touching the wing, but his hand isn’t on it,” Mercedes said in a statement to GPblog. “At each end of the flap, you can see the white dot for legality – and the bracket which allows the flap to pivot when the DRS opens.

“Some people seem to think one of those brackets is his thumb – but it’s clearly not, as it’s the same on both sides.”