Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has admitted the team are 'bloody worried' about the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.

Despite a one-two finish in Barcelona in the race prior, the Mercedes garage is not exactly beaming with confidence ahead of the famed street circuit.

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas both struggled at the same venue last season and Wolff is concerned the tight and twisty circuit will not bring the best out of their two cars.

“[I’m] bloody worried,” confessed Wolff per Planet F1. “We’ve seen in the last years that there were always tracks that suited us well, and some that we weren’t perfect, for whatever reason.

“It’s very difficult to undo the DNA of a car, and Monaco, Budapest, Singapore, were all tracks where we underperformed – underperformed a lot – last year.

“It’s a great challenge for us to come back this year, tame the ‘diva’ – it’s not a diva this year, actually, she’s behaving better.

“It’s a difficult one. Why our car doesn’t like to be quick around the corners in Monaco, we haven’t found out yet.”

Indeed the signs are ominous for the Silver Arrows, although a fairly dominant performance last time out in Barcelona, the timings show that the Red Bulls were significantly stronger in a crucial part of the circuit.

Hamilton agrees with his boss' assessment and echoed his sentiments.

“Monaco is going to be a serious challenge,” admitted Hamilton.

“The others are going to be hard to beat. If you look at Daniel Ricciardo [in Spain] he was much quicker in the last sector, and the last sector is all downforce, so they’re going to be rapid in Monaco, and very hard to beat.

“Montreal as well, where it’s very, very hard to get temperature into the tyres, it’s going to be multiple laps of driving to get temperatures into those tyres there.

“So different things that are coming up are challenging, I don’t think it’s going to be clear as it was [in Spain] at every single race.”

The first five races of the 2018 season have seen Ferrari and Mercedes claiming two victories and Red Bull claiming one while the other manufacturers have been left to scrap for the remaining point positions.

In stark contrast to the Mercedes garage, the Red Bull camp are optimistic about their chances this coming weekend and know it is a big opportunity to gain some ground on their rivals.

“The encouraging thing from Barcelona is that we were quick in the third sector and that is probably the closest to Monaco, so hopefully that shows what we can do,” Ricciardo said.