Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have endured another tough season with Mercedes – while Max Verstappen has claimed a third consecutive world title with Red Bull
Despite Toto Wolff’s critical remarks following the Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton insisted he was “proud” of his Mercedes team.
Max Verstappen unsurprisingly won at Interlagos on Sunday to claim his 17th victory of the season, with Lando Norris in second and Fernando Alonso in third. It was a tough race for Mercedes, with Hamilton ending up in eighth and George Russell failing to finish.
Despite Toto Wolff’s critical remarks following the Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton insisted he was “proud” of his Mercedes team.
Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen emerged victorious at Interlagos on Sunday, recording his 17th win of the year. Fernando Alonso finished third, followed by Lando Norris in second. George Russell did not finish the race, and Hamilton finished in eighth place, indicating that Mercedes had a difficult day.
Mercedes chief Wolff was furious with his team after Sunday’s race and made his feelings known to the press. It’s been another tough season for the once dominant team, with Ferrari just 20 points behind Mercedes in second in the Constructors’ Championship.
Although Wolff is howling, Hamilton showed his class by praising Mercedes’ behind-the-scenes team. He told Sky Sports F1: “One thing the car is really unpredictable. In a sense of one weekend it feels good, one session it feels good, and then not.
“I’m sure we will go and look at things and find things we should have done differently, but with the one (practice) session it’s difficult.
“But I’m still proud of the team, they still came here and did their work, they hold their head up high and that’s what we have to continue to do. Just keep pushing forward. Two more races with this thing. Hopefully no more driving it.”
Yet Wolff couldn’t hold back his anger. He told the same TV channel: “(It was) an inexcusable performance. There are no words for that. That car finished second last week and the week before and whatever we did to it was horrible. Lewis survived out there but George…
I can only feel for the two driving such a miserable thing. So it shows how difficult the car is, it’s on a knife’s edge. We’ve got to develop it better for next year because it can’t be that in seven days of finishing on the podium with a solid, quick car, you’re nowhere.
“We’re clearly not world champions on Sprint race weekends. We did some good work here at the track to get it done, but it still doesn’t explain what went wrong. The car drove like it was on three wheels and not four.”
Mercedes haven’t won a single race this season and achieved just one victory last year. The German team, who won eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships between 2014 and 2021, haven’t endured a winless season since 2011.
“This car doesn’t deserve to win,” Wolff continued. The most crucial thing, in my opinion, is to recover from the last two races and keep going. Then, we should look forward to seeing what we can accomplish in Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi, and other new tracks. However, today’s performance was… I have no words.
Straight line speed was a problem, but it wasn’t most likely the primary one. The main reason, in my opinion, was that we were killing the tires—eating them up in a matter of laps—because we were unable to turn corners quickly enough with the larger wing.”