Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the collision between his two drivers at the Austrian Grand Prix will not impact the team’s contractual talks with Nico Rosberg. “The great thing is Toto and Niki (Lauda) have been great and allow us to race and that is what racing is about”.
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“I hope it doesn’t change and I hope we can continue to race”.
“Certain circumstances have led us to where we are today”, he added.
Hamilton disagreed – and so did the stewards who gave Rosberg a meaningless post-race 10-second time penalty for causing the collision and a reprimand for continuing with a damaged vehicle.
“Hopefully, through these experiences there will be no more and, hopefully, a lot less than what we have had so far this year”.
Asked if he thought his warring drivers would obey team orders, an adamant Wolff replied: “Yes, in capital letters”. “Hopefully they are a blip in the mist and we will continue racing forward”.
And Berger believes that it could be the only option to ensure Rosberg and Hamilton do not crash again.
The Brackley team have allowed Hamilton and Rosberg to race freely over the past three seasons but Wolff says they may now have to intervene if the team-mates and title rivals can not battle cleanly.
Hamilton now turns his attention to his home Grand Prix at Silverstone next week, aiming for another strong result and a fourth British Grand Prix triumph.
“I think they showed a replay of maybe Michael [Schumacher] and Barrichello many years ago [2002 in Austria] and I was disappointed as a fan back then and we never want to see team orders like that ever happen”. We have lots more races ahead, and we are going to continue to race.
“I am gutted, it’s unbelievable”, said the German, accusing Hamilton of turning in and causing the accident that broke his front wing as the slow-burning race suddenly exploded into controversy and acrimony.
“I grew up wanting to race, racing the best, and being the best, by outdriving another individual”.
“We have to cool down a bit”, he continued, “next thing I’m going to do is put my head in a bucket of ice, and in the next couple of days we will know”.
“We are driving at 200-plus miles per hour”.
“We’re driving at over 200mph – you expect us to drive around and never have a problem?”
Hamilton said he did all he could to avoid a crash on Sunday when he passed Rosberg on the outside.
“He made a mistake into Turn 1, went wide, I had an opportunity and I got a run into him”, Hamilton said.
“I have my own personal opinion – I’m not going to express it here – but as a matter of fact that [the collision] needs to be avoided”. Three cars could have come on the inside of me there so…
“The team wants to finish first and second”.
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“I don’t want to attribute any blame because every time you watch the video and you look at onboards there is new information”.
