Lewis Hamilton fears Toto Wolff may be right about Mercedes after scathing claim
Lewis Hamilton thinks Toto Wolff might have been right when he said the Brazilian Grand Prix was Mercedes' worst weekend in its Formula 1 history.
Mercedes have been on the grid since 2010 and have enjoyed remarkable success during that time, winning the constructors' title more times than they haven't. But these days they are not the dominant force on the grid and the Sao Paulo race two weeks ago was a particular low point.
Hamilton finished that race eighth while team-mate George Russell had to retire. Mercedes suffered all weekend with severe tyre degradation and, as a result, their race pace was terrible and team principal Wolff was scathing in his verdict after the Grand Prix.
The Austrian said it was the lowest point in his team's history. While that verdict has since been questioned by several pundits who think Wolff may have overreacted, Hamilton thinks his boss could be right.
Asked for his own verdict when speaking to reporters at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion replied: "I have the worst memory, so I don't really remember them all, it definitely felt like one of the worst.
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"But we just got the car in the wrong place. There is potential obviously in the car, we had two really great races before. We just had it in the wrong window and that's on all of us. But we've learned from it and experiences like that you learn more than the loss.
"So it's painful for everybody, but everybody has recovered. We're back in the factory the next week, everyone's massively motivated to finish off strong this season and I have no doubts that we can."
Fortunately for Mercedes, Hamilton said the problem had been identified which means they will be able to resolve it and avoid making similar mistakes in the future. And while the Brazil race weekend was a tough one to endure, the Brit hopes it can be used to spur his team on going forward.
He added: "I don’t know if they needed necessarily reminding of how much work needs to be done, but there's always good things to take from a difficult weekend like that. And, definitely, when you have those sorts of kicks, it puts things into perspective. I definitely think with last year, end of season we had that win and whilst it was a real big lift for the team, maybe it made us think that we were going to be better moving on to next year.
"So I'm actually grateful for the experience, because the guys still know that we are still not as close as we would like to think, meaning that we have to work harder and we just have to do a better job all-round. But no one in the team is under any illusions, so we realise that we've got a steep mountain to climb."
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