The last two weeks have been particularly intense for Toto Wolff. The Mercedes team principal had to respond blow for blow to the allegations of illegality of his cars launched by Red Bull and Christian Horner and in the meantime he also had to keep the situation on track under control.
Wolff was able to count on a Lewis Hamilton in total state of grace who never gave up and managed to reopen the situation in the championship, now only 8 points behind Max Verstappen.
At the end of a Qatari Grand Prix easily won by the seven-time world champion, Wolff wanted to underline an aspect of Lewis Hamilton that was particularly evident both in Brazil and in qualifying in Losail.
“On the Saturday of Interlagos they awakened the lion. He’s absolutely high and thinking in cold blood. This is Lewis at the top. We have seen it in the past and we are seeing it now ”.
“When there are difficult times he manages to bring out the powers of a superhero. It was the adversity of Interlagos that triggered it ”.
Thanks to its “lion” Mercedes can still hope to take home both titles. Wolff, however, admitted that anyone who manages to win at the end of the season will have deserved the victory.
“I never stopped believing it was possible. We were very strong in Turkey and then in Austin and Mexico our expectations were not met, but no one in the theme ever gave up. If at the beginning of the year they had told me that we would have been fighting for the title in the last two races of the season, I would have signed up. I hope it gets to the end. Whoever wins will have deserved it ”.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
If on one side of the garage there is a wild Hamilton, on the other there is a Valtteri Bottas who is not managing to make an impact in his last races with the Brackley team.
This weekend the Finn was the protagonist of a start to forget from sixth place that saw him even relegate to eleventh position. Then a puncture suddenly complicated the situation all over again and in the end, following the damage sustained during the crazy return lap on 3 wheels, the team decided to withdraw the car.
“Valtteri’s day was hell. He found himself in no man’s land after the start, then he recovered and was fighting for the podium. He was the first on the track to suffer a puncture and had to go a long way before returning to the pits ”.
“We decided to retire the car because the car no longer had downforce. It was damaged and it wasn’t faster, so we preferred to safeguard the power unit ”.
Finally, Wolff wanted to throw a dig (yet another) at Christian Horner after being summoned by the stewards for the statements made to Sky UK before departure.
“I think there is a lot at stake, but I don’t want to comment. We are all responsible for our words. I have not even heard or read his statements, but I only know that it was stinging ”.
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