Lewis Hamilton, along with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, was disqualified from second place for excessive plank wear in Austin; watch the Mexico City GP live this weekend on Sky Sports F1, with qualifying at 10pm on Saturday and the race at 8pm on Sunday
Friday 27 October 2023 22:56, UK
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says he would risk a repeat of Lewis Hamilton's United States Grand Prix disqualification to compete for a race win, rather than taking a conservative approach to car setup.
Hamilton, along with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, was disqualified for excessive plank wear hours after finishing second to Red Bull's Max Verstappen in a race where Mercedes appeared to have had the pace to beat the world champion.
Given it was a Sprint event in Austin, teams only had one practice session before their car setups were locked in for the rest of the weekend, which along with the extremely bumpy nature of the circuit, made it difficult to gauge the right level.
Wolff admits that after Saturday's Sprint in Texas Mercedes were aware Hamilton's car was "on the limit", but preferred to gamble in the hope of staying within the rules.
"The problem with the Sprint races is your car goes into parc ferme and you can't adjust it anymore," Wolff said.
"Going into Saturday we thought, 'hmm, that could be on the limit but probably with a little bit of a margin'.
"I would take the disqualification running for a race win and seeing the performance, rather than ending P3 and 25 seconds adrift. Every day of the week I would take the disqualification."
The hugely time-consuming nature of the FIA's post-race scrutineering checks mean that only four cars were checked for plank wear after the race, with Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris, who was promoted to second after Hamilton's disqualification, both clearing the test.
Wolff said he agreed with Hamilton's assessment, made ahead of this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, that half the grid would have also been disqualified if they had been tested.
"That's the feedback we got from the other teams," Wolff said. "They chat with each other, the drivers.
"Also on a management level, I think many, many teams were probably under the nine-millimetre [limit]."
Wolff said that Mercedes' challenge was exacerbated by the fact they were running a significant upgrade package at Circuit of The Americas, which included a new floor on the W14.
"The upgrade played an element because we got more downforce," he added. "Which is the positive and you are smashing the cars on the bumps a bit more."
Saturday 28 October
6.15pm: Mexico City GP Practice Three
9pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
Sunday 29 October
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Mexico City GP build-up (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
8pm: The MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP
F1 is in Mexico for the middle leg of the Americas triple header. Watch the whole Mexico City Grand Prix weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday's race at 8pm. Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW
