Lauda understands and Wolff does not condemn Hamilton’s attitude during the Hungarian GP

After Lewis Hamilton declared that he was “shocked by the instructions” that Mercedes gave him from the 47th lap of the race to let Nico Rosberg, on a different strategy, pass him, the German team’s management mobilized, mainly to defend their British driver’s position. Indeed, Hamilton refused to move aside.

Rosberg did not ask for a team order

On Nico Rosberg’s side, he states that he did not ask for his teammate to let him pass: “I didn’t want that, it was the team who informed me that he would let me pass. That’s all. I don’t know what happened next. We need to discuss it,” he said to our colleagues at Autosport. “We need to talk about it internally, it wouldn’t make any sense for me to discuss it [in the heat of the moment].”

When pressed further, he insists on having it subjected to an internal analysis: « I don’t want to theorize about this situation. It’s better to discuss it within the team. Obviously, I will sit down with the team, Lewis will be there too, and we will review everything and see what we can learn from this day, as always. »

Hamilton was right, according to Lauda

The non-executive director of Mercedes, Niki Lauda, quickly spoke up to defend Lewis Hamilton’s behavior, attributing the team’s decision to make this call to the chaotic nature of the race: « Mercedes is used to being in the lead and [having the drivers race] against each other. This race, with the safety car at the start and the wet conditions, was completely different, so every minute you had to make a different decision. With this stress, the team told Lewis that he had to let Nico pass, that he was on softer tires, and that he had to come in anyway. »

« But, in Lewis’s position, it was clear that if Nico had been in the DRS zone, one second behind him, of course he would have let him pass, » claims the Austrian on the blog of British journalist Adam Cooper. « But Nico was never that close, so consequently, I can understand Lewis saying: “Why? Why should I stop now in the middle of the circuit to let my colleague overtake me?” He is fighting for the championship anyway. »

The performances of the star brand’s competitors may have caught them off guard: « From my point of view, Lewis was right, and the reason the message came through was because of the panic, and we had to compensate for what we were losing. Ricciardo was the best today, incredible driving; Red Bull, huge car performance in these conditions. Alonso did a perfect job moving towards the right strategy for second position, and the Mercedes team was battling against all of that. »

« The message was not necessary in hindsight, but it was communicated. So what? Lewis ignored it, and he finished 3rd. So, in retrospect, nothing wrong from my point of view. »

For Lauda, this situation is nothing more or less than the application of the philosophy displayed by Mercedes since the beginning of the season: “We want both of them to have the same equipment and be able to fight against each other as they see fit. I think it’s important that Lewis said, ‘No, I’m fighting against my teammate anyway.’ He did the right thing.”

That the two drivers are upset after the Grand Prix is not a cause for concern for the triple world champion of the discipline: « It is completely normal for drivers to want to be the one ahead of the other, so [their] reaction is completely normal to me. Of course, Nico wasn’t happy about the overtaking at the end of the straight, where Lewis stayed on his line, which is normal. It happened ten times in Bahrain one way or the other. I think in hindsight, there was nothing wrong. It was good racing, that’s the most important for me, between the Mercedes and the others. »

Wolff: « Many things » have impacted the team’s result

For Toto Wolff, finally, the only exchange between his two drivers cannot suffice to explain why none of the cars are among the top two for the first time this season: « The team’s result was affected by many things that happened during this race. »

The executive director continued for Autosport: « The safety car, where you saw the top three drop to 4th, 7th, and 8th places, hurt us. Then, we had an issue with the electronic brake assistance system [brake-by-wire system] on the lap after the safety car came in: so, a lot of things went wrong. »

Indeed, when the safety car was deployed after Marcus Ericsson’s crash on the 9th lap, the top four drivers couldn’t head directly to the pits like the rest of the field and were slowed down by the safety car, forcing them to stop on the next lap, losing positions.

« It would be wrong to sum up [this result] to a single situation and to say that it is the reason why the race result suffered or why Nico didn’t win the race. »

The Austrian believes that, in any case, Rosberg was not in a position to overtake regularly: « To be honest, when he was behind him, the pace dropped, he was never close enough to overtake: it’s also clear. So it was not an obvious case where he was just behind him, it was not the case… »

Finally, when asked if this is an act of defiance on the part of Lewis Hamilton, Toto Wolff responds: « It could be one, but we don’t know if Nico’s pace would have been good enough to close the gap that would have helped him win the race. »