© Jiri Krenek for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
After Lewis Hamilton complained about the driveability of his car in the Austrian Grand Prix, Toto Wolff came on the radio and told him: “the car is bad, we know, please drive it”. After the race he explained what he meant by the message.
Over the course of the Austrian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton could be heard complaining to the team about the W14’s driveability.
“This car’s slow, mate,” Lewis said.
“I can’t keep it on the track, the car won’t turn,” he added.
This prompted Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff to come on the radio and say: “Lewis, the car is bad, we know, please drive it.”
After the race, Lewis was asked what Wolff meant by the message.
“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him,” the Briton replied.
Later, at the post-race media conference, Wolff was asked to explain the message.
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“It is only for the best interest of the drivers and the team,” the Austrian said.
“Sometimes there is a certain moment where you need to calm things down. But I mean well.
“We had a lot of discussion about track limits and whether they were enforced or not and I just felt I wanted to make sure we were doing the best to get the most out of the package to make it perform and try to give it the best shot that we had.”
Asked if it could have an impact on Hamilton’s contract negotiations, Toto said:
“You should hear us talking on the phone and meeting each other, that was nothing.
“No not at all [will it have an impact], we’ve had a bad spell of a weekend all of us in the team and that just makes us stronger,” he concluded.
