A dejected Lewis Hamilton declares he's already looking at life after Mercedes as the disaster in Brazil takes its toll

Lewis Hamilton declared that he was already looking at life after Mercedes as the disastrous weekend in Brazil took its toll. The British driver had a horrible race weekend in Sao Paulo, where he was nowhere compared to his teammate George Russell.

The sprint part of the race weekend was forgettable for Hamilton but what followed for the main race was worse, as the driver was nowhere close to the kind of pace that his teammate Russell showed in the wet. While Russell started on the front row and was leading the race into the first corner, Hamilton was stuck in the midfield. The ease with which the driver was overtaken by Max Verstappen was alarming and what followed was a performance where the F1 legend continued to struggle.

By the end of the race, while George Russell was trying to secure a podium in his Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton was struggling to finish in the top 10. Talking to the media, including Motorsport.com, a dejected Hamilton declared that he was already looking at life after Mercedes:

“I just put my focus on something else. I'm not fighting for the championship. Doesn't matter, really, where we finish in the championship. I don't care if I finish ahead of [team-mate] George [Russell] or behind George. It doesn't make any difference to me."

He added:

"I just want to keep the car out the wall and try to score points if I can for the team, if I can finish, whatever. If they give me a car that doesn't bounce off the track in the next few races, then hopefully we can get a better result. But yeah, looking forward to Christmas.”

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Lewis Hamilton at a loss of words to describe what's wrong with the car

Lewis Hamilton was at a loss for words to describe what was going wrong with the car. The driver had a strong run in the previous race in Mexico, where he had a pace comparable to that of his teammate George Russell. Coming to Brazil, the pace was just nowhere, and by the looks of it, nothing seemed to work.

Talking to the media, the driver was questioned if the low ride caused issues or if the bumpy nature of the track played a role. The driver acknowledged that he felt that there was something wrong with the car itself. He said (via Motorsport.com):

“Both, but I think mostly because the car, just something that's not right. Qualifying was bad. Sprint race was bad. The car's just been bad all weekend. Obviously, it's devastating to have these bad races in the second half of the season - but all I can say is, we're trying."

He added:

“We're coming into the weekends, but it's definitely not acceptable. It's definitely not good enough and we have to take accountability. I have to take accountability, but I am doing the best with what I've got."

Lewis Hamilton has already seen himself get overtaken in the championship standings by his teammate George Russell. It remains to be seen how he performs in the upcoming races as he brings his stint at Mercedes to an end.