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Mercedes denies Wolff's anger at Hamilon-Bottas switch in Hungary

Published on 01 Aug 2017 12:49
7
By: Chris Soulsby

Mercedes has denied that its team principal, Toto Wolff, was furious at last weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix when Lewis Hamilton sacrificed a podium finish to his team mate, Valtteri Bottas. Following the race, a video emerged of Wolff punching a desk, a chair, and shouting at Mercedes chairman Niki Lauda when Bottas overtook Hamilton on the final corner of the final lap of the race.

Wolff did admit that switching the pair in the closing stages of the race is one of the most difficult decisions that he has made since he has been in charge at Mercedes, with Hamilton fighting for a fourth world championship title against Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

"Sometimes doing it the right way and standing by your values is f---ing tough, believe me. I feel crap," said Wolff. With regard to the video of Wolff's outburst in the garage however, when asked if the decision to let Bottas through made him lose his temper, a Mercedes spokesman responded: "No. It was simply the release in tension as they crossed the finish line. The guys were really happy with the position swap."

The Mercedes spokesman told Germany's Auto Bild that any confusion from the video was because the swap in position was not seen by those in the Mercedes garage live. "So we had to look at the timing monitor. When it was over, Toto called out but it was a very exciting situation and certainly there was no anger about the outcome. On the contrary," he said.

At the front of the field in Hungary, Sebastian Vettel's team mate Kimi Raikkonen supported him throughout the race despite being quicker. He thought that there was nothing odd about the swap at the end of the race between Hamilton and Bottas. "As I understand, the team decided to swap (positions) and then swap back, so it's pretty straightforward," he said. "I don't think it's the first time somebody has done it."

By winning in Hungary, Sebastian Vettel has extended his championship lead from Lewis Hamilton from 1 point to 14 points going into the summer break. Had Hamilton not swapped positions with Bottas in the final lap, the gap at the front would be smaller, and 11 points would separate them in the championship.

Chris Soulsby

krommenaas

Posts: 155

And what will you do if Bottas wins the WDC by 2 points? :)

1
Aug 1 2017 - 13:57

F1 News Valtteri Bottas Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

Replies (7)

talktohenry

Posts: 362
My opinion of Wolff as a manager has gone down, he's just potentially handed Ferrari the Championship, forget equal treatment, if it was equal they wouldn't be paying Hamilton 3 times Bottas' salary./////////////////////////

You have to give some advantage to the leading driver, and play the Championship game, especially when...... it's MUCH tighter this year............ and Hamilton is leading already and quicker on a consistent basis.............. BIG, BIG........... mistake Toto, what the hell are MB doing? I would sack him if they loose the Championship as a result of this silly and dangerous call.
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- Aug 1 2017 - 13:05
- krommenaas
  
  Posts: 155
  And what will you do if Bottas wins the WDC by 2 points? :)
  + 1
  
  Aug 1 2017 - 13:57
- Wolfgang
  
  Posts: 313
  Why is Toto guilty of what Lewis did?!
  
  Lewis said he´d like to challenge the Ferraris.. If he can´t pass them he switches positions back.. I don´t see a call from Mercedes there it was Lewis doing this swap in places.
  
  Hamilton is quicker on a regular basis?!?
  
  What do you mean by regular? Qualifying is 6:5 for Hamilton as it´s the same concerning the races..
  
  For example is Vettel in Qualifying 8:3 in front whereas in the races he is 10:1 in front with only Silverstone sawing Raikkonen in front of Vettel..
  
  Maybe that´s why Merc can´t favour one of their drivers because of their equal performance whereas at Ferrari you can see a clear difference between Vet and Rai.
  
  What do you think about these facts?
  + 0
  
  Aug 1 2017 - 14:00
- Wolfgang
  
  Posts: 313
  Plus the fact Lewis has 4 points less than last season at the time. 192 / 188.
  Ok, give him the 3 points from hungary and he´s still under the last years standing.
  AND don´t forget he had a DNF in Spain last year, whereas in this year he finished every race so far..
  
  Lewis has no 2 points more than Nico had last year after Hungary..
  + 0
  
  Aug 1 2017 - 15:06
boudy

Posts: 1,168
Pff the whole argument is about the fact that hamilton could not overtake bottas. This issue stems from that.
- + 1
- Aug 1 2017 - 17:18
F1racefan97

Posts: 113
It's gentlemanly for sure, but I would have let Hamilton keep third personally, he quite clearly proved he was the quicker driver on the day and it was far too close with verstappen to pull something like that, for me it was the wrong call
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- Aug 1 2017 - 22:35
- Wolfgang
  
  Posts: 313
  But Bottas was quicker in Qualifying. If Verstappen hadn´t been penalised he´d been in front of Lewis as well.. Thus the discussion and the place swapping would´ve never taken place... And don´t forget Bottas struggled more with the backmarkers at the end of the race hence the big gap at the end.
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  Aug 2 2017 - 06:30