SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Last year’s winners Mercedes suffered a nightmare in Brazil on Sunday with unhappy team boss Toto Wolff comparing their Formula One car to a three-wheeler and saying it did not deserve to win a race this season.
While Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the Sao Paulo Grand Prix for his 17th win of the season, and the team’s 19th in 20 races, Mercedes had seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton finish eighth and George Russell retire.
Russell led Hamilton one-two at Interlagos last November, still the once-dominant team’s most recent win, but this time Mercedes were not even close.
Hamilton spoke on Saturday of his eagerness to consign his mishandling car to history at the end of the season and Wolff agreed entirely.
“An inexcusable performance,” the Austrian told Sky Sports television. “There’s even no words for that.
“That car finished second last week and the week before and whatever we did to it was horrible. Lewis survived out there but George…I can only feel for the two driving such a miserable thing.
“It shows how difficult the car is,” continued Wolff. “It’s on a knife-edge.
“We are clearly not world champions on sprint race weekends… that car almost drove like (it was) on three wheels and not on four.
“This car doesn’t deserve a win. We need to push for the last two races and recover.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Toby Davis)
