The seven-time champion came in eighth in Sunday’s Interlagos race, which was won by Max Verstappen, setting a new record.
After Mercedes had their “weakest race of the year” in Brazil, Sir Lewis Hamilton was eager for the Formula One season to end.
George Russell, Hamilton’s teammate, also had a rough afternoon; he nearly finished in the points but had to retire from the race due to mechanical problems.
Mercedes was well behind schedule, and with two races remaining in 2023, it’s likely that the W14 will be the team’s first vehicle to win no grand prix in twelve years.
When Hamilton was informed that he only had two grand prix left in the vehicle, he grinned and said, “Thank God,” in an interview with Sky Sports following the race. It [sounds good], yes.
“The car is very inconsistent throughout the lap, working at times and breaking down at other times. Therefore, we must ascertain what that is.
Additionally, we drive very slowly on the straightaways and barely maneuver the car through the corners. Thus, it’s one to forget, but hopefully there was a lot to learn today.”
“The car is incredibly unpredictable, for one thing. It feels good for one weekend, then bad for one session, and so on. It’s tough with just one [practice] session, but I’m sure we’ll go over things and find things we should have done differently.
However, I’m still proud of the team because they came in and completed their work; they hold their heads high, and we must keep doing the same. Simply keep moving forward”.
“We have two more races with this.” Ideally, it won’t be driven any more.
“Clearly we got something wrong this weekend, still we’re not too sure what that is as yet, but the pace just hadn’t been there,” Russell continued, echoing his fellow Brit. We needed to gather ourselves and try to figure out what went wrong yesterday because we had assumed it might have been an isolated incident.
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It’s very strange that a year later, this race, which was our strongest the year before, is now by far our weakest. This past weekend, the car was simply slow.
“Something doesn’t quite add up. You just don’t go from a podium fighting car to just fighting for points in the blink of an eye. There is obviously a huge one off this week, but we really need to sit down and understand.
‘A terrible performance.’ Even now, there are no adequate words to express that”, Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff remarked.
“Whatever we did to that car was horrible; it finished second last week and the week before.” George, I feel bad for the two of them driving such a miserable vehicle, but Lewis seems to have survived out there”.
“It demonstrates how challenging the car is—it’s perilous.” You must improve that for next year because it is not possible for you to be solidly placing on the podium with one of the two fastest cars in just seven days, then to finish nowhere and in eighth place.
