After Lewis Hamilton's criticism, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admonishes W14 car: "This car doesn’t deserve a win"

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff said that the W14 car "does not deserve a win" in the 2023 season, given its inconsistent performances over the course of the year.

The German team members were left scratching their heads after the Brazilian GP race weekend, as they failed to replicate the performance of Austin and Mexico in both the Sprint race on Saturday and the main race on Sunday in Sao Paolo.

Lewis Hamilton came home to finish in P8 in the race after struggling with the tires. However, George Russell wasn't as lucky as he had to retire the car in the final phase of the race. Speaking with Sky Sports, Mercedes' team boss Wolff said:

“This car doesn’t deserve a win. I think we need to push for the last two races and recover. That’s the most important thing and see what we can do in Las Vegas with a totally different track and Abu Dhabi, but the performance today was… I’m just lacking words."

“I think straight-line speed was one issue. That was probably not the main factor. The main factor was that we couldn’t go around the corners with the bigger wing with the pace we needed and we were killing the tires just eating them up within a few laps," he added.

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Mercedes team boss gives his harsh take on the performance in Brazil

Toto Wolff did not mince his words, saying that the performance at Interlagos was "inexcusable" and that they had no explanation for the car's lack of performance compared to the previous two races.

Wolff said (via Sky Sports):

“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… I can only feel for the two drivers with such a miserable thing. So it shows how difficult the car is, it’s on a knife’s edge."

"We’ve got to develop that better for next year because it can’t be that, within seven days, you’re finishing on the podium as one of the two quickest cars and then you’re nowhere. We’re clearly not World Champions on sprint race weekends. But it still doesn’t explain what went wrong," he added.

It will be fascinating to see how Mercedes bounces back in the remaining two races of the season. They are 20 points ahead of Ferrari in P2 in the Constructor's Championship, heading into Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi.