November 05, (THEWILL) – Mercedes endured a nightmare weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix, with team principal, Toto Wolff, delivering a scathing assessment of the team’s poor performance. Lewis Hamilton finished a lowly eighth, while George Russell was forced to retire in Mercedes’ worst result of the 2023 season so far.
Wolff did not mince his words after the race, calling the team’s showing “inexcusable” and comparing the car to a “miserable three-wheeler”. He said the car was so difficult to drive it was as if it only had three wheels, a far cry from the championship-winning machines of previous years.
While rival, Max Verstappen, claimed his 17th win of 2023 for Red Bull, Mercedes languished off the pace all weekend. Wolff said the car’s handling was like “driving on a knife edge” and it did not deserve a single victory this season based on this performance.
The team that dominated Formula One for the past eight seasons now looks unlikely to win a race in 2023. Wolff wants the team to recover some pride in the final two races, but conceded their car would not challenge again this year.
It was a sobering weekend for the once all-conquering Mercedes team. Wolff and his drivers will be hoping they can rediscover their winning form in time for 2024, after a season they will want to quickly forget.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
