Team orders 'on the table' for angry Wolff - Mercedes

Omnisports

July 3, 2016 1:39 AM

Toto Wolff was far from impressed with the latest collision between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. "It's absolutely not what he want," he said.

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A furious Toto Wolff acknowledged team orders may need to be implemented by Mercedes, after claiming the final-lap collision between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at the Austrian Grand Prix left the constructors' champions looking like "a bunch of idiots".

Championship leader Rosberg led at the start of Sunday's final lap, only to finish fourth after making contact with Hamilton - who went on to claim victory - at turn two.

Both drivers, somewhat predictably, blamed the other for the incident, but race stewards initially opted to investigate only the conduct of Rosberg, who had been hampered by a brake problem as he initially ran wide.

Mercedes head of motorsport Wolff was left to bemoan another collision between Rosberg and Hamilton, who both retired at Barcelona after making contact with each other on the first lap and have been involved in a number of other skirmishes.

"We are looking like a bunch of idiots and it's disrespectful to 1,500 people who work their nuts off to prepare the cars. This is why this needs to end," Wolff told Sky Sports.

"It seems that talking doesn't bring us any further, so we need to think about all possible solutions. This can go as far as implementing the not very popular team orders."

Asked if Mercedes had reached the point where that would happen, Wolff replied: "No, it's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is this is on the table now. This is what we're going to discuss because maybe this is the only way we can manage the situation.

"I hate team orders, I think we owe it to the fans to let them race and we like it, it's why we are here.

"But if every [incident of] racing ends up in a collision between team-mates, it's not what we want and this is why we have to stop it.

"It seems deja vu, ending up with you guys speaking about colliding team-mates, and it's absolutely not what we want. We just need to think about the consequences from here now."

Wolff defended the decision to switch pole-sitter Hamilton to a two-stop strategy, a move that saw Rosberg claim the lead.

"We left Lewis out because we thought the one-stop was the quicker strategy," said Wolff. "He was the car leading on track, therefore [he got] the better strategy.

"When we realised we need to convert to a two-stop, that is where the problems started for Lewis."

The non-executive chairman of Mercedes, three-time world champion Niki Lauda, was also unimpressed by Sunday's last-lap drama.

"We have to look into it carefully but it was not fun to watch it," Lauda told Sky Sports.

"I know that Nico had a brake problem. This is clear, but the end of this where they hit. This was completely wrong."

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