Wolff explains stern radio message to Hamilton

Mercedes workforce boss Toto Wolff mentioned his stern in-race message to Lewis Hamilton in the course of the Austrian Grand Prix was merely aimed toward getting the perfect consequence from a “bruising” weekend.

After operating as excessive as fourth initially of the race, Hamilton struggled for efficiency over the 71 laps on the Pink Bull Ring and acquired a penalty after simply 17 laps for exceeding observe limits.

“This automotive’s sluggish, mate,” Hamilton mentioned to his race engineer Peter Bonnington early within the race, earlier than including: “I can not hold it on the observe, the automotive will not flip.”

Throughout a battle with Sergio Perez for fifth place later within the race, Hamilton known as on the stewards to penalise the Pink Bull driver for observe limits violations.

Wolff, who not often talks to his drivers over workforce radio, replied: “Lewis the automotive is dangerous, we all know. Please drive it.”

Requested to clarify the message throughout a press convention after the race, Wolff mentioned: “It’s only for the perfect curiosity of the drivers and the workforce.

“Typically there’s a sure second the place that you must calm issues down. However I imply effectively.

“We had numerous dialogue about observe limits and whether or not they had been enforced or not and I simply felt I needed to verify we had been doing the perfect to get essentially the most out of the package deal to make it carry out and attempt to give it the perfect shot that we had.”

Hamilton dropped to seventh place on the end, with teammate George Russell ending eighth. It was Mercedes’ worst workforce results of the 12 months.

“It was a bruising day,” Wolff added. “We could not make the automotive fast.

“We noticed it from Friday observe onwards that we had been missing a few tenths and that was the case as we speak.

“The swings are fairly fascinating, one week it’s us who’s the primary challenger [to Red Bull]then it’s Ferrari after which it’s Aston Martin.

“This time we had been on the again finish of that group and you’re sitting there for 90 minutes attempting to optimize the technique or give the perfect assist to the drivers, but when there is no such thing as a inherent tempo that could be a robust 90 minutes for all of us.”