Lewis Hamilton was the highest profile victim of the tyre situation in Monaco, when being unable to get his front and rear tyres at the right temperature led to him being knocked out in Q2.

But even for Grosjean, who qualified his Haas eighth, the situation was difficult as he is at a loss to explain why he was suddenly able to get his tyres switched on after difficulties earlier in qualifying.

"The frustration is that you cannot go into qualifying building your weekend and working on car balance – feeling we can improve there, we can fine tune this – and then really go for the last hundredths," he explained.

"Here you have one lap that is six tenths faster and another one is nowhere, and again. I don't even know what I did differently other than the out-lap. They said I was 5 km/h faster into turns 12, 14 and 15…."

He added: "It is the pain in the bum needing to be in that window. The window is so small and if you don't have all the tools in the world to get there, the car balance changes from one run to the next one and you never know what set-up to run.

"I have been struggling all weekend with the front not working, not working, and eventually on the out-lap and fine tuning we get them to work. But then it is the rear that goes away."

Grosjean said that the tyre situation was leading to further complications – with many of the traffic issues in Monaco being put down to drivers needing to go so slow on out-laps so they can prepare their tyres.

"We've been pretty good with the traffic and the guys have done a really good job putting us in the right place on the track, which is good," he said.

"The ultrasoft is a really hard tyre so the out-lap has to be perfect to get the tyres into the window. If you have more downforce you get the tyres into the window easier, but I have the feeling it is just too much about tyres."

Hamilton mystery

Hamilton said it was hard to judge whether or not the tyre situation was too much for F1 as a whole, as other teams had got on top of the situation this weekend.

"I think it's difficult to say whether it's setting up the car, I don't know how it is for everyone else," he said. "But for us, obviously we don't understand it currently, how one car can have them working, and the other not.

"But I can't currently say whether it's an issue or a mistake or anything, the way their designed, because other people are making them work. We just have to try and get our head around it."