Barely a week after declaring he had set his sights on victory before the season’s end, Lewis Hamilton admitted his Mercedes was no match for Red Bull after a dire weekend in Sao Paulo.
Having been the quickest car behind Max Verstappen at the past two races, there was finally optimism in the Mercedes garage.
But the seven-time world champion could only finish eighth while teammate George Russell did not finish in a car which team principal Toto Wolff said was like driving on three wheels. The Austrian later described it as the worst weekend of his Formula 1 career.
That might be overstating it but at a track where Russell had picked up the team’s sole win of last season, a victorious outcome at a race weekend looks an impossibility at the final two grands prix in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.
“Red Bull are so far away, they’re probably going to be very clear for the next couple of years,” said the 38-year-old Hamilton. “It’s a setback. But as a team we will just come together and try to push forward. There will be a lot of analysis after today.”
Mercedes have a week and a half to sort out their gremlins before converging on Vegas’ notorious Strip for the third US race of the season. And Hamilton readily admitted he had no idea how his car might fare.
“You never know with this car,” he concluded. “All I can do is try to remain optimistic. But the car, there’s moments it works and moments it doesn’t, and it’s so inconsistent through the lap. So, we have to figure out what that is. One to forget but hopefully there’s lots of learning from today.”
Wolff was apologetic to his drivers for the car at their disposal all weekend, and called for wholesale changes as they battle with Ferrari for second place in the constructors’ championship. Mercedes boast just a 20-point lead.
“An inexcusable performance,” was Wolff’s damning taken. “The car almost drove like it was on three wheels. My worst weekend in 13 years.
“That car finished second last week and the week before, and whatever we did to it was horrible. I can only feel for the two driving such a miserable thing.
“It shows how difficult the car is, it’s on a knife’s edge. You’ve got to develop that better for next year because it can’t be that within seven days you’re finishing on the podium, solid, with one of the two quickest cars, and then you’re nowhere and finishing eighth.”
