Lewis Hamilton suspects an mistake with the established-up of Mercedes’ a short while ago launched new ground design and style was at the rear of their sharp downturn in efficiency at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

But crew principal Toto Wolff thinks that is only section of the rationalization for a dismal weekend in which Hamilton completed a lowly eighth in the grand prix by itself.

Mercedes launched their new ground two months before at the United States Grand Prix. The crew carried out very well at Circuit of the Americas and Hamilton completed two seconds at the rear of race winner Max Verstappen.

Nevertheless his automobile unsuccessful a put up-race inspection of its plank and was disqualified from the grand prix. Mercedes admitted they hadn’t bought their established-up correct through the dash race weekend’s solitary hour-prolonged apply session. A 7 days later on in Mexico, the place they experienced the reward of 3 apply periods, Hamilton completed next yet again.

But following their lousy efficiency in Brazil, one more dash celebration, Hamilton suspected they may well have bought it incorrect yet again with their ground.

“My guess is that the ground is not doing work and the floor’s not settling down so that just pushed us to go to a greater wing [angle at the rear],” he mentioned. “I truly feel we’re just massively draggy on the straights and we’re getting rid of so significantly time on the straights, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

“Then we’re just sliding via the corners. So we have to seem into why that is the situation on this tough circuit.”

He thinks the W14’s established-up clarifies why he finished up in excess of a moment at the rear of Verstappen at Interlagos. “I am confident there is anything inside of the established-up that we could possibly have been equipped to have carried out a little bit improved. But whether or not or not that intended we ended up even further up, I just cannot say.”

Wolff acknowledged the crew built some compromises with how it ran its ground, but thinks there ended up other things at do the job.

“We ran the automobile way way too substantial and it is anything that you know that you have that on [from first practice],” he mentioned. “But that was not the major motive for an complete off weekend in phrases of efficiency.

“There’s anything essentially incorrect mechanically. Or, relatively, it is not a rear wing and it is not the automobile currently being a little, a little way too substantial – due to the fact we’re chatting a millimetre, two, that is efficiency but it is not the rationalization for a overall off [weekend].”

He mentioned the transform in the car’s efficiency concerning consecutive race weekends was “baffling”.

“From a seriously rapid automobile, most effective well balanced or seriously very well-well balanced. Our motorists delighted to a nightmare. How’s that even attainable?

“What is it which is not correct? I would not be stunned that we analyse the vehicles in the following number of times and we uncover out that there was a mechanical situation in the way we established them up despite the fact that I never know what that could have been.”

Mercedes ended up so considerably off the tempo in Brazil they even thought of starting off their vehicles from the pit lane in buy to regulate their established-ups. But Wolff mentioned they weren’t confident they would strengthen their car’s efficiency plenty of to justify offering up their grid positions for the grand prix.

“We did not know essentially the place we would have adjusted it due to the fact there is a significantly even bigger situation,” he mentioned. “We imagined about that but when imagining about maximising details, it was possibly correct to start out like this.”

2023 Brazilian Grand Prix

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