Toto Wolff reveals why Lewis Hamilton did not retire despite ‘park the car’ request

Toto Wolff has confirmed Mercedes would not allow Lewis Hamilton to retire in Qatar when he wanted to “park the car” as it meant his drive-through penalty would’ve carried over into Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton started his penultimate race as a Mercedes driver from sixth place on the Losail grid, but a poor start saw him slip back to ninth.

Toto Wolff: And that’s why we had to take it

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

His evening went from bad to worse as he was slapped with a five-second time penalty for a false start, the Briton apologising to Mercedes as he moved just before the lights went out.

But while that was a big blow, his chances of recovering were hit with an even more severe penalty as he was given a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane.

He told his race engineer Peter Bonnington that he wanted to retire the car, but Bono wouldn’t let him.

Bonnington: “We’ll serve the penalty in this lap.”

Hamilton: “Park the car mate. Retire the car.”

Bonnington: “Negative.”

Hamilton: “I’m switching off when I get there mate.”

Bonnington: “If you want a 5-second penalty in the next race then it’s fine. We only have to do one more lap but we will drive through the pit lane.”

Hamilton served the penalty, driving through the pit lane and brought his car home in 12th place. He was, however, over 20 seconds down on a points-paying position.

Wolff says even though it made no sense carrying on, he had to take the penalty otherwise it would’ve carried over into a grid penalty in Abu Dhabi.

“The false start and the pit lane speeding, and it came to a point where it almost didn’t make any sense to continue,” Wolff admitted to the media including PlanetF1.com, “but if you park the car, you’re carrying this five-second penalty into Abu Dhabi, and that’s why we had to take it.

“The race was bad, and I think the car was super difficult for both of them to drive.

“It just didn’t turn, when the grip kicks in the understeer, there’s unbearable understeer. And both of them suffered from that. ”

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As for Hamilton, he admits the two penalties were his mistakes.

“It was a pretty bad race for me overall, but these things happen,” he said. “It started off badly with my false start which was my fault and resulted in a penalty which I served during my stop.

“I then had the puncture which was just unfortunate followed by the pit lane speeding which was on me, too.”

Admitting Sunday was a trying race, Hamilton vowed to bounce back in Abu Dhabi.

“I’m still standing, it’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up, so I’ll get back up tomorrow and give it another shot next week,” he said.

“I think what’s important is that we turn up and give it our best shot.”

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