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MERCEDES boss Toto Wolff said he “couldn’t believe” the decision to send Lewis Hamilton to the back of the Sprint grid at the Sao Paulo GP, but says F1’s world champions ultimately opted to “take it on the chin”.
Hamilton’s car was eventually excluded from the results of Friday night’s qualifying session, when he had impressively set the pace, for a DRS wing infringement on his Mercedes car.
He ultimately made light of that setback by surging from 20th to fifth place in Saturday evening’s sprint race.
The investigation ran into the hours before Saturday’s sprint race and although stewards said it was clear that there had been no intent on Mercedes’ behalf to contravene the regulations, agreeing that it was a case of something ‘gone wrong’ with the part, they still ruled there were no mitigating circumstances to avoid the disqualification.
But Wolff said: “Until late this afternoon we believed it was okay because the wing was damaged.
“One side was okay, the middle was okay, the right side was not okay. That means we actually had a performance disadvantage and we thought that consideration of all these aspects, the FIA would say there was damage and therefore we weren’t in breach of the regulations. They also said there was nothing that happened with intent from our side.
“Then we were reading ‘disqualified’ which, honestly, I couldn’t believe. I thought (sporting director) Ron Meadows was joking when I saw the WhatsApp.”
Despite starting last as a result, Hamilton raced back to fifth place in the 24-lap sprint race, which was won by Valtteri Bottas in the sister Mercedes ahead of Max Verstappen.
Wolff added: “Strange things happen but you have to take it on the chin and that last 60 minutes of motor racing from Valtteri and Lewis brought all the enjoyment back with the frustrations that happened before.”
As Wolff congratulated Hamilton over the radio on a “brilliant job” in charging back through the field, the Mercedes chief added: “**** them all.”
“I didn’t mean it towards any of the regulations,” he said of his comment. “It’s generally a mindset that we have.
“Yesterday the car was being tested and today two hours before the race we got the information that we were disqualified and that is in a way sad because there are procedures in Formula 1, there is a certain modus operandi and a protocol we have to follow.
“We failed consecutive tests by the tiniest margins and in the past that would have meant, fix it. We saw that with the Red Bull rear wing last weekend. The wing was simply damaged through the qualifying session.
“To be fair enough, the stewards did the job, we failed that one test and their argument needs to be respected. This is why we also decided not to appeal, for philosophical reasons, if the stewards decide you have to take it on the chin, and it goes both ways.” — Sky Sports
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