Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' director of track engineering, said that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are much more interested in working together for the good of the team than competing with each other for intermediate positions.

For the British duo, the season is being hampered by the aggressive behavior of the W13's quiques as the team tries to come to terms with its radical aerodynamic concept.

Despite the measures taken in Spain to solve these problems that had a great effect in Barcelona, the stiffness of the chassis was exposed at the Monaco GP weekend.

"We're all working to try to understand the car and get it into a competitive window, and that's not as easy as some of the cars we've had in the past," Shovlin explained.

"So I haven't really even kept track of where Lewis and George are in terms of qualifying, but they are trying different things, working hard with the team and the engineers to explore different directions.

"They're both very good at that and they know that if the direction they're going is not right, it could cost them a Saturday or a Sunday."

Praising each driver's work ethic as they try to turn things around and join Red Bull and Ferrari in the fight for wins, Shovlin added: "It's being very good to see the way they are working together."

"They're both much more focused on trying to get the car to the front of the grid than worrying about whether one is a little ahead of the other or not."

"We just need to maintain that working relationship, because that will get us back to the top sooner or later."

Baku will also be a challenge for the Mercedes

Regarding the Baku street track, as already anticipated by Grand Prix since before the Monaco GP, Shovlin, confirmed that the team expects similar challenges to Monaco.

George Russell and especially Lewis Hamilton were excited for the rest of the year after being competitive against Ferrari and Red Bull in Barcelona, but they knew things would get worse in Monaco.

Explaining the discrepancies, Shovlin said, "We certainly couldn't make the car work in Monaco like we did in Barcelona."

"In Barcelona, we showed that we had good race pace, even though we knew there was still work to do to close the gap to Red Bull and Ferrari."

"But the challenge of Monaco, its low-speed nature on a very undulating circuit, we were left struggling with the height of the car."

"That was affecting the drivers' confidence to carry speed and that meant we couldn't run as close to the ideal car height as we managed in Spain."

Detailing the work behind the scenes to make a more complete package, Shovlin added: "Baku may present some similar challenges."

"We're working in areas to try to improve the driving dynamics, try to get the car a little closer to its ideal window."

"But we're well aware that in addition to adding basic performance to the car, we need to make it work on a wide range of circuits."

"So those are all things we're busy with in preparation for Baku, but also in the long term, because there are other challenging tracks that will come up."

"But all these projects are being worked on very hard because the team and the drivers are desperate to get back to the front."