Valtteri Bottas says he feels he is on the backfoot compared to some rivals in Monaco on account of struggling to get the tyres in the right window for one lap.
Bottas, who has only once finished on the podium in Monaco, classified fifth during second practice on Thursday afternoon.
The Finn was just 0.033s down on Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who placed third, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen slotting in between the duo.
But all three finished adrift of the pace-setting Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
“Today, for the first [push] lap, I couldn’t get them to work yet, so we need to work hard tomorrow and try to figure it out,” he said.
“I feel like some cars might have a bit of an advantage to us, on that.
“From my side, I’m lacking from the front end in the car on this track. We’ve had similar issues, a little bit, in some tracks, mid-corner, and this is mainly medium and slow speed corners.
“If you don’t have the feeling on the front, if it’s going to turn in or not, you can easily lose quite a bit of time.
“Also, it feels like our car is a bit stiff, like all the bumps and the cambers on the corners, it’s quite upsetting, so it’s something we’ll have a look into.”
Hamilton also suggested it is an area that Mercedes has to tackle in comparison to its front-running rivals.
“The Soft is quite a big step softer [than the Mediums and Hards] and comes in a lot faster but generally they are lasting several laps so you have more than one lap to get the time,” he said.
“Which in some ways is good but then this track is not an easy one to navigate.
“Ferrari have in the past been very quick getting temperature in, Red Bull [are] like that too, so we’ve got some work to do.”
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