Wolff and Allison ecstatic with title but upset with 'very bad' race

Lewis Hamilton's world title celebrations were oddly subdued in the Mercedes camp immediately after a Mexican Grand Prix seen by the team as its worst performance of the season.

Hamilton finished his race off the podium in fourth place after a complicated afternoon during which his crowning was never in doubt but his pace was nowhere near its usual standards.

The Brit enjoyed a reasonably good start but progressively lost his footing before putting himself and his W09 into cruising mode in the closing stages of the event, hampered by degrading tyres and poor handling.

Silver Arrows boss Toto Wolff admitted the end result produced a blend of contrasting feelings.

"It's a fantastic title and I'm so happy for Lewis and the team," he said.

"It's all a bit bittersweet, we had a very bad race which we need to understand, in our mind that plays such a big role but we should be happy about the championship."

• Verstappen wins in Mexico, Hamilton crowned champion!

Wolff was so rattled and preoccupied by Mercedes' poor showing that he didn't even send Hamilton a congratulatory message over the radio when all was said and done.

"I didn't say anything to him because I'm so upset about the race performance that I need to get myself together again."

While Hamilton has wrapped up the Drivers' title, Wolff remained focused on sealing the Constructors' championship in which Mercedes lost points to Ferrari in Mexico.

"The Drivers' is obviously the one that is really important for the visibility but the Constructors' is still out there and we need to perform strong in Brazil."

Mercedes technical director James Allison was equally flustered by the veritable "pasting" suffered by the German squad in the race.

"It's been a topsy-turvy sort of weekend," said the British engineer.

"Then we've got to remember that what we've achieved today we achieved as the result of the whole year of effort, and today was painful but the overall achievement was magnificent and Lewis' driving this year has been peerless.

"We've got to be happy but you sort of have to remind yourself to be happy when you just took a pasting like that."

Allison described the season as one of fierce competition, during which Mercedes did not always have the upper hand.

"The cars have been so close, the competitiveness of the main contenders has ebbed and flowed a bit through the year," he added.

"We have not been the quickest, we just managed to get competitive at the right point, and when we were not competitive we did enough to keep in the fight.

"It's been a desperately difficult year, and the more thrilling for that!"

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