Lewis Hamilton blames W14’s floor for Mercedes’ disastrous Brazilian GP

Lewis Hamilton said the W14 floor was one of the reasons for Mercedes' lack of performance in the Sao Paulo weekend.

Lewis Hamilton blames W14’s floor for Mercedes’ disastrous Brazilian GP

Lewis Hamilton (Via IMAGO)

Lewis Hamilton had shown great form in the latter half of the 2023 F1 season, scoring multiple podium finishes, albeit with bad luck at Qatar and Austin. Mercedes have held P2 in the constructors’ championship for a long time and hoped the Sao Paulo Grand Prix would help them fend off Ferrari for second. However, a huge downturn in performance saw Mercedes have a dismal weekend. 

George Russell finished 4th in the Sprint race ahead of Hamilton in 7th, but the race was even worse. Hamilton could manage only 8th place in the Grand Prix, while Russell had to retire his car. Both Mercedes drivers experienced severe tire degradation throughout the race, and Hamilton believed the floor Mercedes had introduced was a factor. The 7x World Champion said the floor did not achieve enough downforce, forcing Mercedes to install a draggy rear wing, slowing them down.

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My guess is that the floor is not working. It’s not sucking down and it’s pushed us to go to a higher wing, and then we’re just massively draggy on the straights and sliding in the corner. We have to look into why that is the case on this rough circuit. The tyres were overheating slow on the straights, no grip in the corners.
Lewis Hamilton said, as reported by crash.net

Hamilton had entered the weekend just 20 points behind Sergio Perez, hoping to take P2 in the Championship from him. However, the Briton’s poor results and a resurgence from Perez left Hamilton 32 points behind the Red Bull driver. With only two races remaining on the calendar, passing Perez in the championship will be a long shot, especially with Perez’s form seemingly returning. 

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Lewis Hamilton is looking forward to getting rid of W14

Lewis Hamilton was dejected after the Brazil weekend, where Mercedes got a lot of things wrong. Partly due to only a singular practice session available, both drivers had a very wrong set-up for the race and suffered from it heavily. Hamilton said he is looking forward to next year for the W15, as he said the car felt terrible, especially in the sprint. 

It’s so inconsistent throughout the lap; we have to figure out what that is, and then also we are really slow on the straights and really slow in the corners, or at least sliding the car through the corners...Two more races with this thing and then hopefully no more driving it!
Hamilton said, as reported by express.co.uk

Mercedes are currently defending Ferrari for second place in the Constructors’ Championship and lost ground to them in Brazil, even though Leclerc did not start the Grand Prix. The Brackley-based team will look forward to outscoring the Scuderia in the last two weekends on the F1 calendar.

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