FEATURE
M
ercedes team chief Toto Wolff has
branded his drivers as ‘brainless’ after
they collided on the final lap of the
Austrian Grand Prix at Red Bull Ring.
What was looking to be a Silver Arrows onetwo finish ended with Lewis Hamilton taking
victory and Nico Rosberg limping over the line in
fourth place.
Toto Wolff declared on Twitter: “Brainless.
Seeing both cars nearly colliding is upsetting. It
could have easily been a double DNF.”
“We’re looking like a bunch of idiots and it’s
disrespectful to 1,500 people who work their nuts
off on the cars,” fumed the Mercedes team chief.
When asked if team orders were now going
to be imposed, Wolff replied, “What I am saying
is this is on the table because maybe that’s the
only way we can manage the situation.”
“I hate team orders but if every race ends up
in a collision between team-mates, it’s not what
we want. If you are losing a one and two and
finish one and four and lose a lot of points, that’s
not nice,” said Wolff.
Later he added, “We let our drivers race and
we trust them to do so – but colliding team-mates
is not what we want and this is something that
needs to be stopped.”
“If we need to reconsider our philosophy, and
to take some unpopular decisions, then we must
be prepared to keep that option open.”
“I am not going to try and put blame more on
one side than the other; it always takes two to
tango and, as we have said before, this should
not happen between team-mates.”
“We will now let the emotions settle before
we sit down and discuss our next steps,”
concluded Wolff.