Wolff discusses Mercedes’ crisis: I have to protect Hamilton here

Lewis Hamilton had a weekend to forget at Imola, as he failed to make the top 10 in qualifying, the sprint race and the actual race, finishing 13th. But, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff isn’t blaming the seven-time world championship.

Wolff is quite clear and open in admitting that the car isn’t good enough.

“In a way, I have to protect him here,” Wolff said of Hamilton.

“It’s not his low, I think it is the low of the car performance.

“We know that he is a seven-time world champion. We know that he caught up last year, him and us as a team, we caught up and nearly fought for the championship.

“The guy is the best driver in the world and he is just not having a machine and equipment underneath him to be able to execute.

“In a way, I think it’s even irrelevant whether you come in eighth or 12th or 15th. It doesn’t matter, it’s all bad.

“There are none out there, of the really great ones that come into my mind, that didn’t have a certain moment in their career where things didn’t run properly and that is the case now with him.

“He is going to help the team to sort itself out and we are sticking together through good and bad times and [the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix] certainly was a very bad day.”

Mercedes and Wolff’s plan to improve

In terms of what Mercedes can do to improve the car, Wolff explained that the team will work on some new concepts.

“If there are fundamental areas that don’t allow us to unlock the potential that we believe is in the car, then obviously, yeah, you need to cut your losses,” he said.

“It is quite defined, because it would mean that you say ‘okay: where’s the baseline now? Is there a new baseline where we can start upon, where we believe that we can unlock more potential?’

“If we would have thought that, we would have done it five months ago. We believe that this is the development direction that we need to take.”

Marca