Sassy team principal Toto to driver Lewis,
"Lewis the car is bad, we know. Please drive it."
from
https://www.racefans.net/2023/07/03/radio-messages-to-hamilton-were-needed-to-calm-things-down-wolff/
Radio messages to Hamilton were needed to “calm things down” – Wolff
2023 Austrian Grand PrixPosted on
3rd July 2023, 8:16 | Written by Keith Collantine and Claire Cottingham
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff explained why he took the unusual
step of speaking to Lewis Hamilton twice on the radio during yesterday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
While the majority of the team’s radio communication takes place between
the drivers and their engineers, Wolff has increasingly been heard
speaking on the radio when either driver has been notably unhappy. He
did so in the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this year when George Russell
grew frustrated with himself for a mistake.
Hamilton collected a penalty for repeatedly exceeding track limits early
in yesterday’s race. It proved the first of 20 such penalties applied to different drivers for the same infringement.
As Hamilton gathered more warnings for track limits breaches, he began
to report others he observed doing the same. However due to the sheer
number of breaches which occured during the race – over 1,200 potential
cases were inspected – race control gradually fell behind in issuing notifications and penalties.
As Hamilton repeatedly asked his team whether the drivers he saw running
wide were given penalties, Wolff decided to intervene and urge Hamilton
to focus on his own race.
“We had a lot of discussions about track limits and whether they were enforced or not,” Wolff told media including RaceFans afterwards. “I
felt that I wanted to just make sure that we were doing the best out of
the package that didn’t perform and just tried to give it the best shot
that we had.”
Hamilton started the race fifth, fell to seventh at the finish and was classified eighth after his penalties. The poor result was a blow to the
team following their improved performance in recent races, including
podium finishes for Hamilton in the previous two rounds.
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Wolff said his occasional interventions on the radio are “only for the
best interests for the drivers and the team.”
“Sometimes there’s a certain moment where you need to calm things down – but I mean well.”
Selected Hamilton comments on track limits and Wolff’s responses
Hamilton Sainz went off in turn seven, also, mate.
Hamilton Perez completely off at turn nine.
Hamilton Perez completely off at turn 10. Has he got a penalty
yet?
Hamilton This guy’s been off every single time. Turn 10, again. Bonnington It looks like they’re at least 10 laps behind dishing out these penalties. Sainz has one now.
Hamilton Has Perez got a penalty yet?
Hamilton That’s Lando off, nine and 10.
Hamilton Norris off again turn 10 mate.
Hamilton Has anyone else got a penalty?
Wolff Lewis, they’re all going to get penalties in front of you. Keep going.
Hamilton I’ve seen that car [Norris] make turn one once.
Hamilton Is there a reason why the stewards haven’t given those penalties yet?
Bonnington They are still dishing out warnings and penalties.
Wolff Lewis the car is bad, we know. Please drive it.
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Author information
Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was
originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Read more about Keith Collantine, find all their articles and get in
touch with them
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad
mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British... Read more about Claire Cottingham, find all their articles and get in
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Posted on3rd July 2023, 8:16AuthorKeith CollantineCategories2023
Austrian Grand Prix articles, 2023 F1 season articles, Formula 1TagsF1,
formula 1, formula one, hamilton, Lewis Hamilton, mercedes, mercedes f1
team, mercedes grand prix, toto wolff
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16 comments on “Radio messages to Hamilton were needed to “calm things down” – Wolff”
Wybe
3rd July 2023, 9:28
Well, the frustration is real.
Some years ago we saw a completly different Hamilton, everything under
control, being 1ste was the standard. And on the other end of the
spectrum we had Verstappen being frustrated about anything and everything.
Times have changend a lot since then……
REPLY
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BasCB (@bascb)
3rd July 2023, 10:55
Well, yeah. I think Wolf was there at the right moment to get Lewis to
refocus on the driving of the car and away from thinking about penalties
and the fairness of all of that.
Ultimately, it seems they might have intervened a tad earlier when we
all heard Norris on the radio and avoided some of the penalty though
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osnola
3rd July 2023, 11:03
A moaning Lewis and a angry toto…
I seem to remember that ;)
But throwing the development team under the bus to keep your driver
quiet does looks bad.
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Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
3rd July 2023, 16:22
Yes. Maybe there’s another upgrade on the way for this “bad” upgraded car. If not, should have put Roscoe on the radio.
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Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd July 2023, 19:32
Lewis, we don’t have any more upgrades, sorry!
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Jere (@jerejj)
3rd July 2023, 12:11
He should’ve been told earlier that everyone who exceeds their warning allocation would equally get penalized anyway.
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Edvaldo
3rd July 2023, 12:49
i thought he was complaining about the car for Toto to that, but he was
just playing Lando’s game.
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