Mercedes boss Toto Wolff shares uncertain outlook ahead of 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is uncertain heading into the F1 Las Vegas GP (November 17-19) after the devastating performance the team faced racing in Brazil.

The Brackley-based outfit has had a mixed season so far and has maintained the second position in the standings against Ferrari but with only a mere gap of twenty points.

Although Mercedes has been on the podium for a total of seven times, their recent performance has hammered them down. The Brazilian GP turned out to be one of their worst weekends so far in the season with George Russell having to retire from the race. His teammate, Lewis Hamilton finished down at P8.

Heading into the F1 Las Vegas GP, it will be particularly hard for the teams to understand and simulate the track since there is absolutely no raw data available on it. This is the reason Wolff is unsure of Mercedes' performance in the race. He also mentioned to the media that he does not want to be too reliant on the simulation data.

"I'm not sure, I will not rely on the simulations at the moment," RacingNews365 quoted him as saying.

"There's an enormous effort that Liberty undertook with Las Vegas and I think it's going to be a tremendous show for the audiences, for us. “I don't know what to expect. You can see those swings you asked me [in Mexico] and I'm like, 'yeah, we're going to Brazil and this is going to be awesome'," he added.

He further added his uncertainty about going to a track that they had never raced at.

"Now we're going to a track that we haven't been in even, so I don't know."

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What caused Mercedes' lack of speed in Brazil?

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell faced issues facing their competitors in Alpine and Ferrari during the race in Brazil because of their straight-line speed. One of the major issues that the car faced was tire degradation, which they noticed during the Sprint race earlier.

Other than that, a major issue with the floor of the car is responsible for the loss of speed on straights. As Hamilton earlier mentioned, the floor does not generate enough downforce on corners. To counter that, the team has to run high wings which in turn results in loss of speed on a straight.

With Las Vegas being a track made up of mostly straights, it is hard to say how Mercedes will perform. The track will supposedly be tricky for most of the teams because of the track temperature and long straights resulting in brakes going cold.