Brazilian Grand Prix: Mercedes target constructors' championship after Hamilton success
- Published
- comments
Lewis Hamilton won his fifth drivers' world title in Mexico
Mercedes say they have "unfinished business" at this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix despite Lewis Hamilton already tying up his fifth world title.
The team are determined to win the drivers' and constructors' championship double for the fifth consecutive year.
They will do so as long as Ferrari do not outscore them by more than 12 points at Interlagos on Sunday.
"We have a battle on our hands and we have lost ground to Ferrari in the past two races," team boss Toto Wolff said.
"Our target for this season was to win both championships, not one title or the other, so our mindset is one of unfinished business as we head to Sao Paulo."
Mercedes have struggled for race performance in both the last two grands prix in the US and Mexico, which were won by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
Their key issue has been the recurrence of tyre problems that have afflicted them from time to time over the past few seasons.
"We cannot be satisfied with our race performance in Mexico," Wolff said.
"Qualifying looked promising but just a few laps into the race we knew that we'd run into big issues with the tyres.
"We started to analyse those problems immediately after the race and have made progress with understanding the challenges we faced and why.
"It's important to apply all our learnings to make sure we come back strong in Brazil."
Brazil is the penultimate race of the season and Hamilton has said he is determined to keep winning, despite clinching the title.
In both 2015 and 2017, Hamilton failed to win another race after he had claimed the championship before the end of the season.
Wolff praised Hamilton as "the best driver of his generation and among the absolute greatest this sport has ever seen".
He added: "I know that both Lewis and Valtteri [Bottas] are determined to end their respective seasons on a high note; as a team, we are aiming to finish this year with our heads held high and with two performances that properly reflect the level of performance we have attained this year."