NOT COOL
F
ormula 1 world champions
Mercedes have indicated they may
increasingly have to favour Lewis
Hamilton over new team mate Valtteri
Bottas to counter the threat posed by
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
In practice, that is likely to mean the
reluctant imposition of more of the so-
called ‘team orders’ used in the Bahrain
Grand Prix.
“We don’t like that at all,” team boss
Toto Wolff told reporters after Bottas
twice obeyed radio instructions to let
the faster Hamilton through to chase
eventual winner and championship leader
Vettel. “It’s not what we have done in
the last couple of years but the situation
is different now so it needs a proper
analysis of what it means and where we
are.”
Mercedes have never had a
designated number one driver, and Wolff
said the desire was to give both equal
opportunity at the start of the race.
The team won all but two races last
season but are no longer dominant in a
championship that has for the past three
years been an internal battle.
Vettel has now won two of three
races and is seven points clear of
Hamilton.
Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen, Vettel’s
2007 champion team mate who has yet
to stand on the podium this season and
not been on pole since 2008, slipped
34 points behind — half as many as the
German.