Wolff sees tensions within Mercedes: 'Everyone wants to do the best'
F1 News
- Cas van de Kleut
Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes after this season. With it being known so early in the season that the Briton would be leaving, this could cause tensions within the team. Toto Wolff too sees that things can be tense at times within the team, he told GPblog and others.
This season is not going great for Hamilton so far. The Mercedes driver is only eighth in the world drivers' championship. In addition, he regularly complains about the car's performance.
Wolff on tensions between Hamilton and Mercedes
Wolff thinks it is more than normal that there are some irritations from time to time. He says: "We're trying to do the best out of the relationship, trying to maximize the, maximize the results for what is the final season. And that, like always, can be tense at times between drivers and teams because everybody wants to do the best."
On Saturday, Hamilton told Wolff that at the start of the season he did not expect to beat his teammate all season in qualifying [which also does not happen]. When Wolff was asked about what Hamilton meant by that comment, the team boss replied, "You know, aren't all drivers a bit sceptical at times? I think as a team, we've demonstrated even in the most tense competitions between teammates, that we are trying to always balance and be transparent and fair."
Wolff continued: "I think that was one of the moments of 2016 Abu Dhabi [when Hamilton was competing with Nico Rosberg for the world title], where we tried to manage some areas we haven't done since then. But I can understand that as a driver, you want the best out of yourself and the team sometimes when it's going against you, you can question 100%. We’re on a mission to give the two drivers two great cars, the best possible cars, the best possible strategies, and so forth."
This article was written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.
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5 July 2024
