Having shown up with a car slower than the W13 in Brazil, are Mercedes actually further away from a title challenge than 12 months ago?
Mercedes endured one of their toughest days of the season at Interlagos, with Toto Wolff describing their performance as 'inexcusable'.
But Saturday’s sprint race showed a distinct lack of race pace and, once the lights went out for the Grand Prix, it was more of the same for Hamilton and George Russell despite quite a good start to the race. Of course, a possible candidate for Mercedes’ underperformance is that – as has been the case at other sprint weekends – the team simply failed to nail setup during the one hour practice session on Friday before going into parc ferme conditions. But this explanation doesn’t hold much weight, according to Wolff.“We’re working ourselves out of problems on most weekends. The swings are on, but things are not on from being almost quickest to being eighth.
But Wolff admits that the fact of the matter is that there simply cannot be grounds for confidence heading into 2024. After all, 12 months ago exactly, the Interlagos weekend gave them the confidence that their previous concept was working – only for it to be the car’s one and only day in the sun.“We know it confirms that the trajectory of changing fundamentally is right.
Approaching the end of the second season of the ground-effect era, it’s clear that even top teams like Mercedes don’t yet have a full understanding of how best to exploit the aerodynamic philosophy. Lewis Hamilton, having limped home in eighth, hypothesised that the floor “simply wasn’t working” at Interlagos – the reason for that being the case an obvious mystery.
Certainly, having expressed more and more optimism in recent weeks about being able to challenge more strongly next year, Hamilton admitted that he believes the game is up after finishing almost a lap behind at Interlagos – a result that, even in isolation, proves a championship challenge might remain a step too far once again next year.“The Red Bull, I think, is so far away. I think they’re probably going to be very clear for the next couple of years.
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