Toto Wolff makes ‘strange’ selection for Mercedes’ best race of F1 2023 season

Hamilton finished second behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas in October but was later excluded for excessive wear on the plank of his Mercedes car. 

Mercedes technical director James Allison admitted the team had been left “embarrassed” by the seven-time world champion’s disqualification.

Hamilton’s teammate George Russell was subsequently Mercedes’ only finisher in fifth place. 

Asked to pick what he thought was Mercedes’ best race of the 2023 season, Wolff replied: “This might 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. 

“Brazil was difficult, because that was such a good race for us in 2022. We dominated the whole weekend last year, the sprint race and the main race and then in 2023, the opposite was the case. So that was a bad moment. 

“A good moment was Sunday night in Abu Dhabi. I never paid lots of attention to P2 and P3; we of course want to come P1. But then finishing P2 was emotionally and morally important for the team. That was a good moment.”