Mercedes’ had been cautiously optimistic heading into the weekend, given168澳洲5最新开奖结果: George Russell had led a Silver Arrows 1-2 at Interlagos last🍎 year, and the team arrived in Brazil off the back of an en🉐couraging pair of races. 

Despite 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton’s eventual disqualification fro🏅m the United States Grand Prix, his brilliant drive to second in Austin, followed by the same result in Mexico City, had raised Mercedes’ hopes.

But any dreams of claiming♑ a first win of 2023 quickly came crashing back down to earth in w♒hat turned out to be a miserable and deflating weekend for Mercedes. 

After an underwhelming show of competitiveness ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚover one lap in Friday qualifying, Mercedesཧ suffered from a sudden loss of pace in Saturday’s sprint race, highlighted by Hamilton’s slide to seventh as he struggled with unexpected and excessive tyre wear.

There were fears of a repeat in Sunday’s g♉rand prix, where things went from bad to worse. Hamilton tumbled down to a disappointing eighth, while Russell was running outside of the points in 11th when he was told to retire with a cooling issue that left his engine on the brink of failing. 

It was a bruising👍 afternoon for F1’s once-dominant force whᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚo now face the very real prospect of enduring a winless season for the first time since 2011. 

But what was behind a performance tha🐬t was labelled as “inexcusable” by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff? 

Hamilton suspected that the floor of his Mercedes W14, which was upgraded at the US GP, was the key f🌌actor to blame. 

"My guess is that the floಌor is not working,” the seven-time world champion suggested. 

“It is not sucking down and it's pushed us to a higher 🍨wing and then we are massively draggy on the straights and sliding in the corner. We have to look into why that is the case on this rough circuit.

"Th𒆙e tyres were overheating, slow♔ on the straights, no grip in the corners.”

Mercedes were ultimately at a loss✱ to explain their dramatic form 𓄧drop-off in Brazil, with Wolff describing it as “totally baffling”. 

“Swings [of performance] are on, but swings are not on from being almost quickest to being wherever we ended up...eighth,” he said. “For me, pe😼rsonally, the worst weekend in 13 years.

“Totally baffling. At the same ti🐼me unacceptable for all of us. We are a proper struꩲcture, solid team and that didn't look like a solid team. 

“Within three consecutive races you're finishing a strong second, and bꩲoth of them cha♐llenging Max, and then a week later you're ending up nowhere. I believe this is just not on.”

Was it justꦍ a case of a set-up mistake, or is there a more concerning and deep-rooted problem Mercedes areꦫ yet to discover? 

While there was 🅰no simple answer, Wolff did admit that Merc𒐪edes went too conservative with their ride height, though he stressed that wasn’t the “main reason” for their glaring lack of performance. 

"We ran the car way too high and you carry that on.𒈔 But that wasn't the main reason for an absolute off-weekend,” Wolff explained. 

"There is something fundamentally wrong mechanically. It's not a rear wing or the car being slightly too high. We are talking a millimetre or two. It is performance but it is not the 💝explanation for a total off-weekend.

“From a really quick car, the best balanced and drivers happy, to a nightmare. How's that even possible? What is it? What i🏅s it that's not right? 

"I wouldn't be surprised that we analyse the cars in the next few days and we find out that there was a mec🦋hanical issue in the way we set them up or something. But I don’t know what it will be.”

Mercedes’ setback in Brazil was bad timinꦕg. It came just when the team felt they were starting to get a handle on things and were gaining some much-needed momentum ahead of a crucial winter in which they hope to close the gap to Red 🔜Bull.

It also confirmed - if any more proof was needed - the flaws in their W14 design and underlined the gulf between theꦏir 2023 challenger and Red Bull’s far superior RB19. 

That was the realisation that appeared to dawn on a downbeat Hamilton, who gloomily predicted Red Bull will most likely continue to rule the roost  for 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:“the next couple of years”. 

"This car, the development has been more plasters we put on something not right, and it shows that it is so unpredictable that it can swing eit﷽her side,” Wolff added. 

"We will have a fundamentally diffꦇerent car next year and this confirms that is the right thing to do.” 

Whether it turns out to be a blip, or a worrying sign that Mercedes are still lost in understanding F1’s𓆉 new era of regulations, remains to be seen. 

What is for sure is that there will b✅e plenty of head-scratching going on back at B🌳rackley.