Despite Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification, Toto Wolff believes the United States Grand Prix was Mercedes’ finest race of the 2023 F1 season.
Hamilton finished second to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas in October, but was later disqualified for excessive wear on his Mercedes car’s flooring.
Mercedes technical director James Allison confessed the team was “embarrassed” by the disqualification of the seven-time world champion.
Mercedes’ only finisher was Hamilton’s teammate George Russell in fifth place.
When asked to name his favorite race of the 2023 season, Wolff said, “This may sound strange, because we got disqualified, but Austin!”
“We brought an upgrade package that worked, the car was performing well, and we were hunting down the leader. You could say, ‘well, you were disqualified for a car that was too low’, but the genuine performance was there and that was an enjoyable weekend.
“I’ve always said that I’d rather have a fast car that we haven’t tuned in the right way. And obviously you need to finish. But that was the best weekend overall, seeing that the correlation between the wind tunnel and the track was good.”
Wolff was also asked to reveal his proudest and lowest point of the season.
“It’s difficult because there have been so many moments where we had high expectations and it didn’t pan out as we’d expected,” he explained.
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