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Mercedes technical director James Allison says the team were left “embarrassed” by Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification from the United States Grand Prix for a breach of technical regulations.

Hamilton and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were excluded from second and sixth places respectively four hours after the end of Sunday’s dramatic race after wear levels on the planks underneath their cars were found to have exceeded limits set out in F1’s regulations.

The seven-time world champion’s disqualification means that instead of closing to within 19 points of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for second in the drivers’ standings, his deficit grew to 39 points with just four rounds of the season remaining.

Speaking in Mercedes’ post-race debrief, Allison said: “Of course the disqualification is a significant blow. It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts and, everybody here feels it.

“Everybody is upset, embarrassed to a degree as well because we absolutely don’t like being on the wrong side of the rules, and just lamenting the lost points.”

After Mercedes brought a final significant upgrade of the season to the W14, Hamilton produced a hugely impressive weekend which saw him narrowly lose out to the other Red Bull of world champion Max Verstappen for victory.

Allison said that the progress made in terms of performance will help the team get over the disappointment of the disqualification.

He added: “Give it a day or two and that will start to wane and be replaced by the much happier feeling, which is we moved our car forward this weekend and that it’s hard to do that.

“But we did it and we did it by a decent amount. And with four races left in the championship, four races where I am pretty sure we will stay on the right side of the skid block rules.

“The initial feeling of hurt, and disappointment and frustration of ourselves will pass to be replaced by the sunny optimism of knowing that the car looked bright on this upgrade package and we’ve got four more races to show what we can do with it.”

‘We made a mistake’

Allison also gave a detailed explanation of how Mercedes fell foul of the regulations, accepting that the team had made “a mistake” by failing to leave enough margin.

“The disqualification had everything to do with the setup and the bumpiness of the track, amplified by the fact that it was a Sprint weekend,” he said.

“At a sprint weekend, you are under much more pressure, you have just a solitary hour at the very front of the weekend.

“After that one hour basically, you have cast your die, you have chosen your setup and you have then got to run the rest of the weekend with the bets you placed in that one hour of running. That means much, much less time to assess things than normal and much less time to make corrective action ahead of the remaining sessions later in the weekend.

“Austin is a track which has a very bumpy surface and therefore you are a bit more vulnerable to bumping the car on the ground. We just simply didn’t take enough margin at the end of Free Practice 1.

“When we had done our setup we checked the plank and everything, all looked fine, really untouched after the FP1 running. But the results of the race speak for themselves. We were illegal at the end of the race so clearly, we should have had our car set a little bit higher up to give ourselves a little bit more margin.

“It’s of course a mistake, it’s an understandable sort of mistake in a sprint weekend where it’s so much harder to get that stuff right, especially on a bumpy track. But a lesson for us in the future to make sure that we take more margin, especially at a track like that with all its bumps.”

How Hamilton strategy gamble fell ‘crushingly’ short

The pain of disqualification could have been even more extreme for Mercedes had Hamilton ended a near two-year wait for his 104th F1 victory, which very nearly happened.

The Brit was closing on Verstappen rapidly in the final laps of the race but could have already been in front of the Red Bull if it weren’t for a poor strategic call from Mercedes.

With Hamilton running second behind Lando Norris and in front of Verstappen, Mercedes chose not to react to Red Bull bringing the Dutchman in, opting to attempt to implement a one-stop strategy as opposed to the two-stopper the other contenders had committed to.

Hamilton’s tyres fell away a couple of laps later, by which point he had lost track position to Verstappen and then had to fall back onto a less optimum version of the two-stop strategy.

Their respective pace for the remainder of the race, with both comfortably faster than Norris’ McLaren, suggested that Hamilton would have had an excellent chance of victory had Mercedes reacted immediately to Red Bull’s stops.

Allison explained that Verstappen’s dominant performance in Saturday’s Sprint had left Mercedes convinced that Hamilton would not have the pace to beat him on the same strategy.

“We should have pitted Lewis, we should have kept ahead and we would have given ourselves a better chance of the win had we done so,” Allison said. “But it’s good to understand where we were coming from, and also understand a bit more of the strategists’ dilemma.

“We knew that we had been pretty pacy during the Sprint race the day before, but we also knew that Max just had the edge on us.

“Austin being the sort of track where generally speaking the track sort of tends to deal out the cars in pace order by the time the chequered flag falls at the end of Sunday, so we didn’t actually think we were in exactly the same race as Max.”

Given that belief, Mercedes believed their best chance of victory was by running an alternative strategy, and they thought a one-stop was possible as Hamilton maintained strong pace late into his first stint.

“We left Lewis out there and waited to see what would happen, hoping that the flat lap time progression would continue,” Allison said. “A lap went by and we’d effectively been undercut and then we were just crossing our fingers to see whether the pace evolved as we hoped.

“But, rather crushingly, within a very short period of time after we had lost the ability to protect against Max, after a long period of flat lap times with Lewis, his lap times turned south on us, and we experienced the same degradation as everybody else, turning us into a two-stop car along with everybody else, but having surrendered the position to Max in the first instance as a result of that false optimism that we could make this one-stop work.

“Whereas we definitely would have been better to cover him off because actually the raw pace of the car was good enough to compete on equal terms with him and if we had just done a two-stopper against his two-stopper, it could have been a different race.”

When to watch the Mexico City GP live only on Sky Sports F1

Thursday 26 October
9pm: Drivers’ Press Conference

Friday 27 October
7pm: Mexico City GP Practice One
8:45pm: The F1 Show
10:45pm: Mexico City GP Practice Two (also on Sky Sports Main Event)

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 heads straight to 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

Max Verstappen picked up a hard-fought 50th win of his F1 career but didn’t get a friendly reception on the podium at the United States GP; watch every session from the Mexico City GP this weekend live on Sky Sports F1, beginning on Friday

Christian Horner has described any booing for Max Verstappen as “water off a duck’s back” after he was jeered by fans at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday.

Verstappen took his 50th F1 win to go one behind Alain Prost, who is fourth on the all-time winners rankings, and his third consecutive victory at the Circuit of The Americas.

However, he was booed as he lifted his trophy up by some of the spectators in Austin, a venue where Mexico’s Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s team-mate, has traditionally had strong support.

Asked about the booing ahead of this week’s Mexico City GP, Horner said: “I don’t think Max is going to get the warmest reception in Mexico! But that’s water off a duck’s back. One year you are the villain, the next year you are the hero.”

It was far from an easy race for Verstappen as he nursed a brake issue from the opening lap and crossed the line only 2.2 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Verstappen was still able to make big moves on Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris though on his way to a record-equalling victory number 15 of 2023.

“We changed the brakes after yesterday and it was not good. I had no good feeling under braking and I couldn’t really get on top of it for the whole race, so this is something we need to understand,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“Of course, around here when you are not very confident under braking, you just don’t have the nice feeling under braking when you come off it. It can cost you quite a bit of lap time and it was a bit more difficult than I expected it to be. I normally never really struggle with braking so far in my F1 career, but it was definitely a bit of a problem.”

Verstappen comfortably undercut Hamilton at the first round of pit stops as Mercedes, perhaps wrongly, went long with their driver.

He chased down Norris on the mediums in the second stint and overtook him at the halfway point of the race. The Dutchman says his pace was a lot closer to the others compared to other races and he was not as confident compared to normal.

“Once I was in the lead, I think the gap was OK. But with a few laps ago there was some backmarkers and my tyres were not feeling that great,” said Verstappen.

“The hard tyre was not very good today. But I think the gap was just big enough and not too many laps left.”

Horner: Verstappen and Lambiase’s ‘marital bliss’ continues

Verstappen also had some fiery team radio exchanges with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, known as GP, during the race in Austin.

The 26-year-old, who has a very straight-talking relationship with Lambiase, repeatedly told him to not speak in the braking zones.

Lambiase said on the radio that he would see Verstappen on Friday – when practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix begins live on Sky Sports F1 – which Horner explained.

“There marital bliss continues! Max is complaining about his brakes and GP is asking about his front wing offset,” said Horner.

“GP was always scheduled to go back to the UK after this race, so that’s why he had a plane to catch, which is why he said ‘see you on Friday’.”

Verstappen added: “We still won the race and that’s the most important thing. When you are struggling under braking and not that confident, I politely asked to not be spoken to. I said please when I asked!”

F1 heads straight to 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

Reports claimed that Red Bull driver Sergio Perez could announce his retirement at the Mexican GP; watch the full United States GP weekend live on Sky Sports F1, with qualifying on Friday at 10pm , the Sprint on Saturday at 11pm, and then the Grand Prix at 8pm on Sunday

Sergio Perez says he has been “laughing” at rumours suggesting he could announce his retirement from Formula 1 at next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, and insists he is “100 per cent” sure of remaining with Red Bull next season.

Following the latest disappointing performance – at the Qatar Grand Prix – of what has been a hugely disappointing campaign for Perez, a report claimed the 33-year-old could announce the end of his career at his home race.

Perez is contracted to Red Bull until the end of the 2024 season, but his world champion team-mate Max Verstappen’s total domination over him has resulted in speculation over whether the team could opt to replace him at an earlier date.

“I also read that,” Perez said of the report, ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

“I’m just laughing at it. There’s nothing I can do. I’m fully focused on the job.

“That really sums up my season. A guy says something about me, then all of a sudden it becomes true.

“But I have a contract for next year, and no reason to not complete that contract. I’m going to give my very best to it, I’ve done a commitment.”

Asked about his level of certainty at remaining with the team next season, Perez said he was “100 per cent” confident of being retained, citing conversations with team principal Christian Horner and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko.

“I have a contract, and the conversations with the team as well,” he added. “There is no reason for me not to fulfil that contract.”

‘Red Bull contract not my last in F1’

After making a strong start to the season in which he shared two wins apiece with Verstappen in the opening four races, Perez has fallen 209 points back from his team-mate, a margin which means the Dutchman has sealed his third successive drivers’ title with five rounds to spare.

Perez admits his deficit to his team-mate has been challenging to deal with but insists he has not even considered retiring.

“It is difficult, of course. It’s not ideal when you go through a difficult patch in your career,” Perez said.

“But I just love the challenge of getting back at it.

“The easiest thing would be to just walk out of it, but that’s not me, that’s not who I am, and I will not give up.

“I have zero doubts that I will be back to my best level, and that is my only target I have in mind.

“I do not even think about retirement or anything like that, because that’s just the easy route.”

Perez also said that his current contract with Red Bull would not be his last in F1, but refused to confirm his openness to driving for another team.

“I’m not thinking on that (driving for another team), but I’m just enjoying it at the moment,” he said.

“I’m loving the challenge of getting back out of it. I’m 33, I think I’ve got some good years ahead of me, so I think as an athlete you want to maximise your career. That to me is important, and that’s my focus.

“I’m with Red Bull and I want to stay with Red Bull, but obviously it has to work out for both sides.”

When to watch the US GP and F1 Academy finale live only on Sky Sports F1

Friday October 20

• 2.15pm: F1 Academy Practice One
• 6pm: US GP Practice One (Session starts 6.30pm)
• 7.55pm: F1 Academy Practice Two
• 9pm: US GP Qualifying build-up
• 10pm: US GP Qualifying (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• 11.30pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
• (Saturday) 12.30am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Saturday October 21

• 3.30pm: F1 Academy Race One
• 6pm: US GP Sprint Shootout build-up
• 6:30pm: US GP Sprint Shootout
• 9.15pm: F1 Academy Race Two
• 10pm: US GP Sprint build-up
• 11pm: US GP SPRINT (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• (Sunday) 12.30am: Ted’s Sprint Notebook

Sunday October 22

• 3.30pm: F1 Academy Race Three
• 6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: US GP build-up
• 8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX (also on Sky Sports Main Event)
• 10pm: Chequered Flag: US GP reaction
• 11pm: Ted’s Notebook

Watch Formula 1 return to Texas for the United States Grand Prix and another Sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend Stream F1 on Sky Sports with NOW