Mercedes back to scene of last win: Where are they at, can they win Brazil again?

Sao Paulo GP: Mercedes' prospects assessed as they return to scene of last F1 win, one year on Mercedes' impressive late-season victory last year in Brazil wasn't ultimately a sign of things to come in 2023, so how are they looking one year on and what chance a repeat this weekend? watch the Sao Paulo GP live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday, with Sunday's race at 5pm Last Updated: 01/11/23 5:09pm Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player George Russell wins his first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix holding off Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win in Sao Paulo. George Russell wins his first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix holding off Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to win in Sao Paulo. Interlagos, Sao Paulo; November 2022. The scene of George Russell's maiden Grand Prix victory in Formula 1. And also the scene of what remains the Mercedes team's most recent triumph. Almost a full calendar year has passed since that November 13 afternoon when Russell - who had already won the Sprint the day before - impressively kept his composure to hold off a comeback charge from team-mate Lewis Hamilton to claim what at the time appeared a potentially significant breakthrough win for the team amid a difficult first season under F1's current regulation era.F1 is back in Brazil for the 2023 edition of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1, with Mercedes still searching for a first victory of this season and locked in what currently are close battles for the runner-up positions in the championships behind runaway Max Verstappen and Red Bull. So where are they at, one year on from that Russell win, in their bid to get back to the front of the field and what are the chances of a repeat Interlagos success this Sunday, on the back of the promise shown in the first two legs of F1's ongoing Americas triple header.What's happened at Mercedes since Brazil 2022? Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Speaking after the season-opening Bahrain GP, Toto Wolff said the team had one of the 'worst days in racing' after finishing fifth and seventh Speaking after the season-opening Bahrain GP, Toto Wolff said the team had one of the 'worst days in racing' after finishing fifth and seventh If the Verstappen-dominated Abu Dhabi GP that followed one week after Brazil last November gave everyone a useful reminder of how fast Red Bull still were in 2022, it didn't take very long into this year for realisation to dawn about what lay ahead in 2023.The dominant early pace of the new RB19 in both Bahrain testing and the opening Grand Prix weekend itself back in March was a sobering reality check for the so-called chasing pack.For Mercedes, it quickly resulted in the abandonment of their unique 'zero-sidepod' concept that had garnered so many headlines when it was revealed at the start of F1's new regulation era in 2022, and then stuck with for 2023's car.It was as early as his interview after the season's opening Friday practice sessions that Hamilton publicly signalled that Mercedes were on the "wrong track" with their car approach, an assessment team boss Toto Wolff said he agreed with when he spoke to the media 24 hours later after his new car qualified 0.6s adrift of pole."We got it wrong last year [2022]," said Wolff at the time. "We thought we could fix it by sticking to the concept of car but it didn't work out. So we just need to switch our focus on to what we believe is the right direction."It probably didn't, but if anything further did need to be underlined, then finishing 50s behind Verstappen one day later in the race certainly would have done that. Wolff described it as "one of the worst days in racing," for him and that "Red Bull is just on a different planet".Although a new path for development was now to be set in motion, the season was now always likely to be one of compromise given the W14 had been developed around a different core design philosophy. With Red Bull clearly out of reach, making the best of what they had, and could still improve, was going to be the focus of 2023.In April, Mercedes announced a job swap at the head of their technical structure with James Allison and Mike Elliott after a review led by the latter. Allison returned to the position of technical director he last held in mid-2021, with Elliott stepping up to the broader chief technical officer role. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Sky Sports News' Craig Slater assesses the impact that Mercedes' new upgrades could have, as the first pictures emerge of their revamped car. Sky Sports News' Craig Slater assesses the impact that Mercedes' new upgrades could have, as the first pictures emerge of their revamped car. The revised bodywork layout was first raced at the Monaco GP at the end of May, after the previous race at Imola was cancelled, at which poin