Mercedes Sao Paulo Performance 'Painful To Watch' Says Brundle

Sky Sports F1 reporter and former F1 driver Martin Brundle commented on the performance of the Mercedes team during the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos Circuit.

Mercedes had one of the toughest weekends in a long time, and Martin Brundle was there to watch it as a co-commentator with David Crofft on Sky Sports channel.

The former F1 driver seemed to be surprised by the slow pace of Silver Arrows. In his Sky Sports F1 column, he described the weekend for Mercedes "painful to watch."

Qualifying sessions revealed Mercedes would not be the fastest, but the team still hoped for a decent race pace to move the drivers upwards from initial starting positions like in Mexico City.

Lewis Hamilton, for example, started the race in Mexico from sixth place on the grid and managed to cross the finish line in second place while also taking the fastest lap of the race.

However, the Saturday sprint race at Interlagos Circuit showed such results would not be replicated when the seven-time World Champion fell down two positions from initial P5 to cross the finish line in P7.

The best highlight for the two Mercedes drivers from the whole weekend is their starts off the line, during which they gained a couple of positions both in the sprint race on Saturday and the race on Sunday.

Otherwise, the performance of their cars has been pretty miserable compared to their main competitors, like Ferrari, Aston Martin, and McLaren.

The team principal, Toto Wolff, showed his disappointment with the weekend as he labeled it the "worst weekend in 13 years" since Mercedes returned to Formula One in 2010.