Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was not in Qatar to directly witness or comment on the accident between the two Lewis Hamilton drivers and George Russell at the start of race
Toto Wolff insisted he did not lose any sleep over the “unpleasant situation” between drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
For much of their partnership at Mercedes over the past two years, the two British drivers have enjoyed a good relationship, but in the past two race
weekends there have been incidents that could cause Their relationship becomes strained. In Japan, they fought hard on the track, which could make the
Mercedes garages bite the dust. This time they managed to avoid any collision, but were not so lucky last time at the Qatar Grand Prix.
Russell started one place ahead of his teammate, but Hamilton used softer tires with more grip. He tried to sweep around the outside of the other Mercedes going into the first corner, but misjudged the move and caused contact which sent him spinning into the gravel and out of the race.
The only good news for the Mercedes drivers was that team principal Wolff was not there to witness it. But he has made the trip for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix after recovering from knee surgery and was quickly quizzed about
the state of his driver partnership.
“Well, there were some, let’s say, unpleasant situations that we have talked about,” he responded. “Lots of points that we left on the table but there is nobody more aware than the drivers. And sometimes you need these moments to recalibrate, readjust, and avoid similar situations in the future.
“But they’re racers, they compete hard. Your first opponent is your team-mate and so I saw it with a relaxed, relative attitude. And I came back – I don’t think [there’s any connection between his absence and the incidents.] We laugh about it in the team too, but I don’t think it has any effect.
“I think we are racing more at the front now and I think we have a sniff on how it is looking like to have no car in front of you with the McLarens and with Max [Verstappen] there. So much in any case,
we’ll never find out – I’m back.”
In Wolff’s absence at the Losail International Circuit, Mercedes communications chief Bradley Lord was left to react in real time and said:
“There should be a little bit of tension [between Hamilton and Russell] there because they are competitors and we don’t want puppy dogs in the car, we want lions and that’s what we’ve got.
“The real challenge is how do you build a healthy and trusting relationship? And how do you work together as a team in order to achieve the team’s objectives? And they’re both really able to do that. I think Lewis, again, spoke highly of the quality of his relationship with George after the race and they’ll talk about it, put this behind them and we’ll come back to Austin even stronger as a team. »
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