Toto Wolff and Mercedes face toughest test after ‘baffling’ deterioration in car

Design errors have left the team’s W14 car well off the pace – and Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull will dominate for ‘the next couple of years’

Miserable, horrible, baffling and inexcusable. Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, had said he was lost for words to describe his team’s performance at the São Paulo Grand Prix, yet find them he did and they were a damning litany. Mercedes were left flailing at Interlagos in what was their worst performance of the season, but the real import goes beyond Brazil.

For the previous two races, in Austin and Mexico, the team had been decidedly upbeat. Their final major upgrade had delivered and indicated, Mercedes believed, they were on the way to understanding how to gain performance for next year’s car. In São Paulo that belief was battered.

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