Lewis Hamilton has pleaded with Mercedes to let he and team-mate Nico Rosberg continue to race each other despite another collision between the pair.
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Wolff, technical boss Paddy Lowe and other members of the Mercedes top table know that a decision to stop Hamilton and Rosberg from racing on track would prove an unpopular decision, particularly with a record crowd of almost 140,000 fans expected at Silverstone on Sunday.
Mercedes could yet decide to impose restrictions on its drivers that prevent them from racing freely – therefore reducing the likelihood of another crash. I’m the three-time world champion and my job is to do what they say.
The next race on the calendar is the 2016 Formula One British Grand Prix on this weekend.
As Hamilton took the checkered flag, his engineer told him over the radio: “Not the race we were after, but good work”. The improving but still lopsided state of F1 right now means that if the Mercedes teammates can’t race each other, there often won’t be a battle for the win. “That is what you turn up and you sit in the dirt and mud in the camper van at Silverstone for, and that is why you buy the cap because you have that passion and that fire”. “Because you have that passion and that fire”.
While team boss Toto Wolff did his best to contain his anger, describing the incident as “brainless” and warning that team orders appear to be the only solution, the race stewards adjudged Rosberg to be the culprit.
Spielberg: Nico Rosberg was given a 10 seconds time penalty for causing his collision with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton said he did not want to start attributing blame, but made clear that he felt he had left Rosberg enough space.
“I am very disappointed but these things happen in racing and we just have to get on with it”.
“Certain circumstances have led us to where we are today”, he added.
Wolff will discuss the situation with senior Mercedes management before deciding what policy to introduce. “So what I’m saying is it takes two to make contact”. I am fed up with trying to analyse it.
A disgusted Rosberg told Sky Sports: “I’m absolutely gutted, for sure”.
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Six drivers failed to finish the race, the most notable being Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Wolff was understandably furious with the outcome, losing valuable points in the title race, due to an event that could, and should have been avoided.
