After taking the win last time out, Mercedes F1 head into the Monaco Grand Prix expecting it to be a completely different ball. The circumstances, working environment and driving challenges are completely different to anywhere else around the Principality and teams and drivers need to get everything exactly right if they want to perform to their maximum around the famous streets.

“Not every factor is under your control, either, so you need to turn fortune in your favour at the right time if you want everything to come together,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. "Monaco is also one of our busiest races. We welcome many guests, executives and partners, who all contribute to our success in different ways. It's extra special to have this group cheering for us, so we look forward to their support at the track.

The Brackley based squad heads into the sixth round of the 2017 in the lead of the constructors championship with Lewis Hamilton closing the gap to Sebastian Vettel by seven points in the drivers battle. But the team won't be resting on their laurels, they know that it will be a fight with Ferrari at every round if they want to stay on top.

"Every weekend will push us to the limit; this is the new reality of Formula One in 2017,” Wolff continued. “The last three years were extraordinary. But this season I have re-discovered why I love the sport. I love the intense competition. This competition means that you won't be winning easily - but that you'll have a fierce fight on your hands. Because of that, the feeling is even greater when you manage to come out on top, as we did in Spain.”

Things could have been better if Valtteri's engine didn't let go with the root of the problem being something they haven't encountered before…

"It was painful to lose 15 valuable points with Valtteri retiring from P3. We've identified the root cause of the problem, which was the turbo. We haven't seen that defect before, which shows you that you need to be double diligent. This is a technical sport and if you stretch your limits, you'll encounter technical problems.”

So now it's on to Monaco, with practice getting underway on Thursday morning local time.

"If we get the job done in Monaco, I'm pretty sure we'll bring down the garage roof. We're all properly fired up for this fight, so let's see what we can do..." Wolff concluded.