Wolff: We cock-up together and win together

Editor

After a botched pit call cost Lewis Hamilton victory in Monaco, Toto Wolff was particularly pleased that on Sunday Mercedes got things right.

Hamilton, who won the drama-filled British Grand Prix, secured victory by pitting at exactly the right time and changing to intermediate tyres after the rain became heavier at Silverstone.  

Wolff, motorsport boss at Mercedes, knew Hamilton had made the right call as the team had provided him with the necessary information to do so. 

"We cock-up together and we win together, and the exchanges on the radio about what was happening and the strategy were spot on," he is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

"When the rain hit us, it was so calm on the radio about the options, but then it was Lewis’s call. He made that pit call at the right time, using the right information.

"In Monaco we had a problem in our system. Here we were concentrated, calm and focused on the priorities and that was part of getting it all right."

Earlier, the two Williams cars, driven by Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa has stormed to the front of the race, leaving Hamilton and Rosberg, who had locked out the front row of the grid, in third and fourth. 

The two Mercedes drivers kept pace with the leaders however and Hamilton led after the first round of pitstops. The game changer though proved to be Hamilton's call to be the first of the front-runners to switch to inters.

Wolff believes that Hamilton's decision to pit proved he was the complete racing driver, able to make important decisions under pressure.

"If you are a double World Champion and win so many races, you are a complete racing driver," he said. "You can’t put him in a box and say he has only God-given talent. He has to have a view of the whole picture and that was clear here.

"This was Lewis’s home grand prix, there were great crowds and it was a relief from the talking down of the sport we have had. We also had the fastest ever pit stop – 2.4 seconds… including reaction time."