Toto Wolff to ‘recalibrate’ Mercedes racing rules after Hamilton slips clear
Lewis Hamilton won the Barcelona GP ahead of George Russell
Mercedes will re-evaluate how Kimi Antonelli and George Russell go racing after the teammates went wheel-to-wheel in Barcelona and gave Lewis Hamilton a free pass in the lead.
Their latest intra-team battle ended on Lap 61 with Antonelli retiring his car with an electrical shutdown. It was the second tussle in three race weekends to end with one of the cars breaking down after Russell suffered a “catastrophic battery” failure in Canada.
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Although Hamilton was in the midst of a Mercedes sandwich for most of the first half of the Barcelona Grand Prix, the former Mercedes driver seized the initiative when he made an early second stop.
Mercedes opted not to cover him off, with Hamilton up in P1 after Russell and then Antonelli pitted for a second time.
Hamilton slid into the pits for a third time under a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 42, and re-emerged in the lead ahead of Russell and Antonelli. While he stormed off into the distance on his fresh tyres, Antonelli attacked Russell for second place.
The teammates went wheel-to-wheel, and it got a bit spicy as Russell squeezed Antonelli to the side of the track. The Italian wasn’t backing down and took second place off Russell, but he suffered a broken front wing in the process.
However, it came to nought for the championship leader as he suddenly slowed before stopping on the side of the track with an electrical failure.
It was the second time in three race weekends that a fight between the Mercedes teammates ended with one of the two retiring with car troubles.
It was Russell in Canada, and Antonelli in Barcelona.
But for Wolff, that was just one of two reasons to be frustrated with Sunday’s outcome.
“I’m underwhelmed,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media.
“We can’t DNF cars in a kind of regular or continued way, losing 25 points in a constructors’ championship in Montreal, and losing another 18 points today.
“In order to finish first, first, you have to finish.
“Reliability at least is what we need to get on top of, and that’s number one. So, nobody’s happy about that, and we will, we will leave no stone unturned to understand.”
As for his second reason, that was that the battle between Russell and Antonelli gave Hamilton breathing room at the front.
He continued: “The second thing is that George had an unbelievable beginning of the race, where he just… it looked like everybody was standing still behind him, but then the pace fell away. And the other stints towards the end of the first, and the other stints, Kimi had the advantage.
“We didn’t interfere in them fighting, because that’s how we always raced.
“But it’s a situation we need to look into for the future with both drivers, how to handle a situation where there’s a pace differential. If we are fighting for a victory at the risk of losing a victory, that’s going to be an interesting discussion.
“I’m always totally transparent with them, the best interest of the team.”
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The Mercedes team principal says now that there is clearly a third contender for the titles, he will have to re-evaluate how his drivers go racing.
“Number one, there is a third party not getting involved in a championship fight – constructor and driver,” he explained.
“And in that respect we will discuss internally with them with the two drivers how we want to end the situation where we risk holding each other up.
“I think it was not a problem, it is just maybe we need to recalibrate.”
Despite his DNF, Antonelli maintained his lead at the top of the Drivers’ standings by 156 points to Hamilton’s 115. Russell is a further nine off the pace.
Mercedes lead the Constructors’ fight by 262 points to Ferrari’s 190.
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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