Following Lewis Hamilton’s early withdrawal from the US Grand Prix, Mercedes manager Toto Wolff has supported the driver, stating that there was “definitely” an issue with the seven-time world champion’s vehicle.
Three laps into Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas, Hamilton lost control of his W15 and fell through the gravel trap at the same Turn 19 area where teammate George Russell crashed out of qualifying.
Speaking to the media afterwards, the five-time Austin winner, who had risen from 17th to 12th on the opening lap, was left to wonder what may have been as it abruptly interrupted what had been an exciting start to the race.
In response to a question about Hamilton’s incident and its possible cause posed by Sky Sports F1, Wolff said, “100% car.” At that point, I don’t believe he was even pushing.
We seen it [during qualifying] with George, and while it may have been overdoing it, he still lost it and threw it in the wall. In this particular scenario, there was wind and some polluted air today.
“There is undoubtedly a problem with us. I’m not sure if yesterday and today are the same. Without a doubt, Lewis Hamilton never loses the car in this manner.
After first calling the five-second time penalty Russell received for an altercation with Kick Sauber opponent Valtteri Bottas a “total joke” during a rare radio appearance, Wolff also shared his thoughts on the decision.
After his qualifying collision, Russell recovered from a pit lane start and pushed by Bottas under braking for Turn 12, but the stewards determined that Russell had forced the Finn off the track in the process.
Wolff continued, “I think with Valtteri it wasn’t even a race,” yet he still saw his driver move up to a respectable sixth place and help the team salvage some points from the weekend.
“We’ve seen a few of those incidents in the Sprint race that were exactly the same but weren’t penalized; they were actually racing for positions, real positions, and it’s just really strange and weird to get that penalty.”
Regarding the stewards, he continued, “It’s a challenging job at the end of the day.” While some are doing their best, others are really good. You must honor these men.
