Lewis Hamilton shows class after Brazil GP horror but Toto Wolff loses his cool
Lewis Hamilton insisted he was "proud" of his Mercedes team after the Brazilian Grand Prix - despite Toto Wolff's scathing comments.
Max Verstappen unsurprisingly won at Interlagos on Sunday to claim his 17th victory of the season, with Lando Norris in second and Fernando Alonso in third. It was a tough race for Mercedes, with Hamilton ending up in eighth and George Russell failing to finish.
Mercedes chief Wolff was furious with his team after Sunday's race and made his feelings known to the press. It's been another tough season for the once dominant team, with Ferrari just 20 points behind Mercedes in second in the Constructors' Championship.
Although Wolff is howling, Hamilton showed his class by praising Mercedes' behind-the-scenes team. He told Sky Sports F1: "One thing the car is really unpredictable. In a sense of one weekend it feels good, one session it feels good, and then not.
"I'm sure we will go and look at things and find things we should have done differently, but with the one (practice) session it's difficult.
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"But I'm still proud of the team, they still came here and did their work, they hold their head up high and that's what we have to continue to do. Just keep pushing forward. Two more races with this thing. Hopefully no more driving it."
Yet Wolff couldn't hold back his anger. He told the same TV channel: "(It was) an inexcusable performance. There are 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...
Lewis Hamilton finished eighth at Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix (Hasan Bratic/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)What's your thoughts on Toto Wolff's strong view? Let us know in the comments below!
"I can only feel for the two driving such a miserable thing. So it shows how difficult the car is, it's on a knife's edge. We've got to develop it better for next year because it can't be that in seven days of finishing on the podium with a solid, quick car, you're nowhere.
"We're clearly not world champions on Sprint race weekends. We did some good work here at the track to get it done, but it still doesn't explain what went wrong. The car drove like it was on three wheels and not four."
Mercedes haven't won a single race this season and achieved just one victory last year. The German team, who won eight consecutive Constructors' Championships between 2014 and 2021, haven't endured a winless season since 2011.
Wolff added: "This car doesn't deserve a win. We need to push through the last two races, recover – I think that's the most important thing – and see what we can do in Las Vegas, a different track, and Abu Dhabi. But the performance today was... I'm lacking words.
"Straight line speed was one issue but probably not the main factor. I think the main factor was we couldn't go around the corners with the bigger wing with the pace we needed and we were killing the tyres, just eating them up within a few laps."
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