Hamilton/Wolff: No bust ups, plenty of fall outs

Despite rumours of a pending separation, Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff seem to have a near perfect relationship.

Or as Martin Brundle put it: “They’re like strawberries and cream or gin and tonic – made for each other.”

Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013 and a year later bagged his first of five World titles with the Brackely team. He is now just one away from equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of seven.

Hamilton has worked with Wolff throughout his Mercedes days but that relationship could, at least according to the rumour mill, be coming to an end.

Hamilton has been linked to a move to Ferrari, replacing Sebastian Vettel, while Wolff could be off to Aston Martin, the F1 team currently known as Racing Point.

For now, though, the seemingly perfect relationship continues.

And, like most perfect relationships, both admit it has its ups and downs but they work through it.

In an interview with Sky Sports, the Mercedes men were asked if they ‘ever fall out, have a fight, have a shouting match?’

“Often. Falling out, yes, but shouting match…no,” Wolff answered.

“I think that’s only natural isn’t it?,” Hamilton replied.

“We have disagreements but we’ve never had a bust up or anything like that.

“We have disagreements that we have talked about. The thing is that we’ve always been very transparent with each other, whether you like it or not.

“I think that’s been why [the relationship] is healthy as it is.

“We are so similar in our personalities. For me I’ll be like ‘I’ve got to go away for a couple of days and I’ll come back’ and Toto’s the same. He’s like ‘I can’t answer you right this second and I’ll come back.'”

Wolff responded: “We had a discussion many years ago where I said I often have disagreements with Suzie [Wolff, Toto’s wife] but I’m not in any way doubting the relationship.

“I think we [me and Lewis] together on this journey and this joint objective where the team needs Lewis and Lewis needs the team, and that’s why you don’t need to discuss anything while emotions are high.

“Lewis may start being irrational then that will trigger me to be irrational and that just makes everything worse.

“But by respecting the distance a little bit and letting things cool down, we can then put the finger in the wound and say ‘well this is how I saw it’. It takes a while for the waters to calm down but eventually…we’re in this together.”

“Communication really is so important though,” Hamilton continued.

“We are both constantly interviewed and there will times when Toto’s being interviewed and I don’t even know he’s been interviewed, and vice versa, and sometimes, months down the line, they [the media] will take one single line or word and twist it.

“And then you will see something in the news and be like ‘hold on a second, Toto how can you say that?’

“Then he’ll be like ‘I didn’t say that’ and so we have learnt over time, because in the past you would see something that would frustrate you and you don’t say anything about it and dwell over it then we bump into each other and so ‘no that’s actually not what’s happened.’

“So we find that nowadays, as soon as there is a problem then we pick up the phone and sort it out straightaway.”

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