Mercedes takes the blame for Hamilton's USGP disqualification

Toto Wolff says Mercedes has “to take it on the chin” that it got its set-up wrong at the United States Grand Prix that led to Lewis Hamilton being disqualified from second place.

Hamilton had chased down Max Verstappen in the closing laps and ended up finishing just behind the race-winner after a strong performance from Mercedes all weekend. During post-race technical checks, both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc’s cars were found to have excessive plank wear and were disqualified, and Wolff admits Mercedes didn’t get its set-up right due to the lack of practice.

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“Set-up choices on a sprint weekend are always a challenge with just one hour of free practice – and even more so at a bumpy circuit like COTA and running a new package,” Wolff said. “In the end, all of that doesn't matter; others got it right where we got it wrong and there's no wiggle room in the rules. We need to take it on the chin, do the learning, and come back stronger next weekend.”

Despite the lost result. Wolff says there were clear improvements from the Mercedes upgrade that give the team cause for optimism.

“We can take a lot of positives from the car performance," he said. "We hate coming so close to winning and falling short. But this is a circuit where only a few races ago we wouldn't have performed well because of the fast, sweeping corners. The upgrade seems to have made the car happier in those areas and it is working well. Directionally, it's a very good sign.”

Hamilton himself similarly insisted the disappointment of losing out on 18 points will not be allowed to overshadow the wider progress that is being made.

“Overall, we still didn't perform optimally,” Hamilton said. “We had good pace and I was feeling great in the car. It was tough racing those around me as they were so quick, but we can be happy with many things.

“I feel positive as we're moving forward, even if reflecting on it we could have possibly won. It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race but that doesn't take away from the progress we've made this weekend.”