Toto Wolff admits to being in shock following the "miserable" performance of the W14 in Brazil just a week after almost winning in Mexico.

The cuts to the Mercedes garage during the race said it all, Wolff staring at the monitor stony-faced as his drivers fought a desperate battle to remain relevant.

Coming just a week after Lewis Hamilton had given Max Verstappen a run for his money in Mexico, it was hard to believe that it was the same car.

Going into the race, Hamilton and his teammate, George Russell, had admitted their fears that tyre deg would be an issue, but even they didn't comprehend how bad things would get, the works Mercedes losing out to customers McLaren and Aston Martin.

Despite a strong start to the race it wasn't long before both drivers began to suffer and while the seven-time world champion hauled his car home in eighth, rising engine temperatures caused Mercedes to retire his teammate just 14 laps from the end.

"An inexcusable performance," Wolff subsequently told Sky Sports. "There are no words for that," he continued. "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, it's on a knife's edge.

"We've got to develop that better for next year," he admitted. "Because it can't be that within seven days you're finishing on the podium with probably one of the two quickest cars and then finish eighth."

The Austrian believes that the choice of rear wing for Interlagos was largely responsible for the night and day performance compared to Mexico.

"Straightline speed was one issue," he said, "but probably not the main factor. The main factor was that we couldn't go around the corners with a bigger wing with the pace we needed and we were killing the tyres, just eating them up within a few laps.

"We are clearly not the world champions on Sprint race weekends," he added. "We do some good work here on track to get it done. But still, that doesn't explain what went wrong. I mean, that car almost drove like on three wheels and not four."

Another factor, according to Hamilton, was his floor.

"My guess is that the floor's not working," he said. "The floor's just not sucking us down, so that just pushed us to go to a higher wing. And then we're just massively draggy on the straights. We're losing so much time on the straights, there's nothing I could do about it.

"And then we were just sliding through the corners, so we have to look into why that is the case on this rough circuit.

"I knew that we would have a relatively difficult day," he admitted. "Nothing changed in the car from yesterday to today, so I knew it would be a tough one. Yesterday I just ate through the tyres with an unexpected lack of pace. And then I think I drove better today in terms of making my stints, but we were just slower.

"In the moment it is a setback," he admitted, "but as a team, we'll just come together and we'll try and push forward.

"There'll be a lot of analysis this week after today, and I'm sure there'll be things we'll be like, 'Ah, Maybe if we'd done this, it would have been better', but I think still ultimately, the car needs work here for some reason and that's the way it is."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Interlagos City here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 08/11/2023 23:53

"@Hobgoblin....How observant! Yes, I spoke to Toto, post his droopy appearance on Sky race interview, and told him what he needed to do. He endorsed my directions and took it on board without so much as a whimper, but I'm afraid it may be touch too late!!!"

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2. Posted by Hobgoblin, 08/11/2023 13:08

"@kenji - fan-GOAT - perhaps you are touting for the fix-everything-at-Mercedes job?"

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3. Posted by kenji, 06/11/2023 23:34

"@ Endre....thanks for the reminder! Mea Culpa. I'd forgotten that little doozie. All will be well in the Mercedes camp in '24 then, given the expertise available, courtesy of the Driver GOAT. "

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4. Posted by Dirt, 06/11/2023 15:07

"Does parc fermé prohibit updating the car's radiator setup to allow extra cooling if it's found to be needed after FP1? I assume it does since there could be some performance impact associated with changing the airflow through the bodywork. If so, frustrating for Russell. This is assuming that Russell's engine temperature issue was down to the radiator system being configured for too little airflow, rather than there being a fundamental cooling issue that couldn't be remedied by some bodywork changes. It sounded like cooling was an issue for the entire field from the sprint race on."

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5. Posted by Endre, 06/11/2023 13:53

"@kenji, Toto doesn't have to worry, the GOAT of everything Hamilton has already told them the floor is the issue so all they have to do is fix it as per his instructions.

"

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6. Posted by kenji, 06/11/2023 8:16

"Time to man up Toto. Carrying on like it was the end of days!! It will be if he doesn't take a shake to himself. Where is the 'GOAT Team Principal' being touted some short time ago? They are not infallible as it has been clearly demonstrated over the past three years. The 'fizzy drinks' company has it all over the Black Arrow leviathan and Wolff needs to keep his head down and just get on with it. Being the tam hangdog is not a good look...despite the reality of it all. Maybe it's time for a shake out of the top management, including Wolff, and get some fresh blood on the factory floor, metaphorically speaking that is."

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An "inexcusable performance," admits Wolff

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