“The floor is not sucking it down”: Lewis Hamilton draws a worried figure after a dismal Mercedes outing in Brazil

Lewis Hamilton suspects a fault in the Mercedes W14's floor design after a disappointing finish to the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The main race at Interlagos loosened the Brackley team's grip on second place in the constructor's standings as George Russell had to retire following cooling issues in his car while Lewis Hamilton could only manage a P8 finish.

This disappointing performance was a follow-up to a similar race during the Sprint earlier, where Hamilton had pointed out the tire degrading issue on the W14. The seven-time world champion had a different issue after the Sunday race, bringing to light the car's floor design. As quoted by PlanetF1, Hamilton said:

"My guess is that the floor is not working. The floor is not sucking it down so that pushed us to go to a higher wing, and then we’re just massively draggy on the straights."

The floor is a vital aspect of Formula 1 cars that creates enough drag for them to corner at high speeds. However, if the floor does not create enough drag, then the car will either have to slow down or run at high wing angles. Mercedes did the latter, which compromised their speed on straights.

Lewis Hamilton pointed this out in the car, saying:

"And we’re losing so much time on the straights, there’s nothing I can do about it, and then we’re just sliding through the corners. So we have to look into why that is the case on this rough circuit."

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Lewis Hamilton hoping to get rid of the W14 soon

The W13, Mercedes' challenger for the 2022 season, was labeled the worst car Lewis Hamilton had driven in his Formula 1 career. With the progress made in the W14, he seemed to be quite happy, especially with the performance he had in the USA and Mexico.

However, after the Brazilian GP weekend, the seven-time world champion was disappointed with the car yet again. He mentioned that the car is unpredictable. F1 quoted him as saying:

"I think it’s difficult to say. One thing is the car is really unpredictable in the sense of one weekend it feels good, one session it feels good and then not."

He added that he hoped he wouldn't have to drive the car after the two remaining races this season.

"They still came here and did their work, they hold their head up high and that’s what we have to be able to continue to do, just keep pushing forwards. Two more races with this thing and then hopefully no more driving it!"

Lewis Hamilton suffered a blow in his battle against Sergio Perez for second place in the championship after his P8 finish. The latter was able to bring in P4, which will assist him in keeping the position. Hamilton is currently 32 behind Perez's tally of 258 points this season.