© Stephen Reuss for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says the team “just got the car in the wrong place” at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, but now they’ve “learned from it and experiences like that”.
After two great performances at the Unites States and Mexican grands prix, at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix Mercedes had its worst race of 2023.
Ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was asked how bad did it feel.
“Yeah, it definitely felt like one of the worst,” the Briton said.
“But we just got the car in the wrong place. There is potential, obviously, in the car. We had two really great races before. We just had it in the wrong window, and that’s on all of us.
“But we’ve learned from it and experiences like that, you learn more than the loss, you know.
“It’s painful for everybody. But everybody’s recovered. We were back in the factory the next week.
“Everyone’s massively motivated to finish off strong this season. And I have no doubts that we can.”
When asked if he and the team understand why the car was in the wrong window, Lewis said:
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“I know exactly what it was. I knew exactly what it was already.”
Ultimately, Lewis said he thinks the experience they had in Brazil, will help the team in the future.
“I don’t know if they needed necessarily to be reminded of how much work needs to be done but there’s always good things to take from a difficult weekend like that and it’s definitely, when you have those sorts of kicks, it puts things into perspective.
“I definitely think with last year, end of season, we had that win. And whilst it was a real big lift for the team, it maybe made us think that we were going to be better moving on to the next year.
“And so I’m actually grateful for the experience because the guys still know that we are still not as close as we would like to think, and meaning that we have to work harder, and we just have to do a better job all round.
“But no one in the team is under any illusions so we realise that we’ve got a steep mountain to climb,” Hamilton concluded.
