Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has conceded the team "got it wrong" with set-up after Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from the United States Grand Prix. The seven-time F1 World Champion had put in a stirring performance to challenge Max Verstappen and Red Bull for victory at the Circuit of the Americas. But post-race inspection found his plank had worn too much during the race and thus failed to conform with the sport's Technical Regulations, resulting in a disqualification. Reacting to the result, Hamilton said: "It is of course disappointing to be disqualified post-race but that doesn't take away from the progress we've made this weekend."
Take it on the chin
Teams were faced with a set-up challenge as F1 arrived for the latest Sprint event of the season and COTA's infamous bumps wreaked havoc for a number of teams in the only practice session. Mercedes had seemingly cracked the code with its upgrade package but, as it has emerged, was on the wrong side of legal come the end of the race. "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," explained Wolff. "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."
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