Mercedes Terrible Performance Blamed On Disqualification in United States
F1Saturday, 11 November 2023 at 21:00
Sky Sports F1's Naomi Schiff suggested that Mercedes's DNF in Austin could have influenced the car's setup for the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix did not go according to the expectations of the Mercedes F1 team and their fans. As former F1 driver Martin Brundle described, it was "painful to watch" Mercedes drivers struggle as they were falling down the grid.
However, Silver Arrows performed great in Austin at Circuit of the Americas two weeks earlier. The track there has very similar "bumpy" track characteristics to Interlagos Circuit. Naomi Schiff told the Sky Sports F1 podcast:
"If you go back to Austin, Lewis was on the podium, so was the Ferrari, and post-scrutineering, they realized the car was running too low."
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc got disqualified a few hours after the United States Grand Prix for running their cars too low to the ground.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari struggled with performance in Sao Paulo compared to teams like Red Bull, Aston Martin, and McLaren. Schiff elaborated:
"And now that’s a question mark that we’ve all had over the weekend is, were Mercedes playing it safe? Were they being a little too cautious with their ride height? And, therefore, did they suffer too much for it?"
Hamilton complained about the car sliding in the corners, which could be the result of running the car too high. Schiff also pointed towards the large rear wing, which Mercedes might have tried to use to compensate for lower downforce in corners:
"They also had quite a large rear wing on the car, I guess to compensate a little bit for that, and they were therefore super exposed even in DRS, that car was super draggy."
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the team thought about changing the car's setup before the race but didn't know what to change. Schiff concluded:
"I just think that they were not operating in the right window from a setup perspective, it didn’t look great out there for them."
Mercedes has had a rollercoaster of a season with both great and shocking weekends. The team seems to be lost in the current car concept, but Wolff promised Mercedes will be changing their car completely for the next season.
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