Ghosts From Mercedes’ Past Take the Blame as Lewis Hamilton Drops the Ball on Winning Opportunity

12 months ago, the Brazilian GP was the stuff of Mercedes’ dreams. A 1-2 finish—with George Russell leading Lewis Hamilton home—was the best Mercedes could’ve asked for in a season marred with problems. In some ways, though, it was also one of the worst things to happen to the Brackley team. Because of the W13’s success in Brazil—despite its flawed zero-pod concept—Mercedes felt it was developing in the right direction. Contrary to what Hamilton suggested, the Silver Arrows continued the same concept in 2023. And guess how that ended? A track that used to be a happy hunting ground for Mercedes turned into an absolute nightmare.

Coming into Brazil, Mercedes believed it could maybe replicate its performance from 2022. The team believed it had a chance at victory. All they had were happy memories from the past couple of seasons. Who could blame them for being optimistic? Instead of being reminded of those memories during the weekend, all Hamilton & Co. must’ve thought of were the ghosts of its recent past.

An uncharacteristic Brazilian GP for Lewis Hamilton

Throughout this season, Mercedes has struggled to understand its W14. After finally listening to Hamilton’s advice about doing away with the zero-pod concept, the car has gotten better, but Mercedes’ understanding hasn’t. Especially during Sprint weekends. The team usually takes the entirety of Friday to analyze how the car acts on a particular track. Only on Saturday does Mercedes find its groove. “Weekends with the Sprint are not the best for us because the car is such a ‘diva,’” said team principal Toto Wolff. 

As Mercedes analyzes the reasons for going backward in Brazil, Laurence Edmondson of ESPN’s Unlapped Podcast gave their take on what happened. They believe one of the main reasons was Hamilton’s disqualification after the US GP. “[Brazil] was a Sprint weekend. You get that one practice session to set up the car and get everything right. In the US, they ran the car too low and ended up falling foul of the plank rules,” said Edmondson. In Austin, Mercedes introduced a new floor design. Although Hamilton finished in P2 and later got disqualified, he repeated his result in Mexico with another P2. The new floor was definitely working; the Sprint format was the problem.

Edmondson explained, “In [Brazil], perhaps, they went a bit too conservative. They ran the car a little bit too high and then they were struggling with grip. They had this huge rear wing, so much more downforce than they usually put on there. And it wasn’t delivering the performance they wanted. It seemed like the floor and the wing weren’t working together. Then they tried to fix that in the race by changing the front wing level to balance everything out to try and protect the tires, and that just led to this car that was awful.”

Read More: Silver Lining Highlighted for Lewis Hamilton as F1 Expert Contradicts Toto Wolff’s Pessimism

After starting in P5 and running in P3 for a bit, Hamilton could only manage a P8. With his teammate having retired from the race, Mercedes was beaten by two of its customer teams—McLaren and Aston Martin—Red Bull, Ferrari, and Alpine. Needless to say, Hamilton was extremely happy to get one step closer to the season finale.

Lewis Hamilton can’t wait for 2023 to be over

Before the Brazilian GP, Mercedes started looking decently competitive. When Hamilton signed his contract extension earlier this year, he believed Mercedes could get back to fighting form in 2024. With Mercedes’ development in the second half looking good, that seemed like a possibility. It may still be one. One thing is for sure, though. The W14 is a lost cause. Mercedes knows it, and Hamilton knows it. After dropping down the field in Interlagos, Hamilton couldn’t help but express how happy he was.

He was happy because the end of the Brazilian GP meant that he’d have to drive the W14 only for two more races. As soon as he crossed the line, he radioed in and said, “Yes! [Nearly the end of the W14]. It didn’t feel as disastrous as yesterday. I felt that I drove a good race in managing the tires than I did yesterday. We are really slow on straights and sliding the car through the corners.” He added, “We will go and look at this and see if we could do things differently. Two more races with this thing then no more driving it.”

WATCH THIS STORY | Lewis Hamilton and George Russell slapped with a brutal reality check amid resurrection rumors

Do you think the disqualification in Austin was the reason Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes struggled so much in the Brazilian GP?