Hamilton’s ‘dirty tricks’ to retain F1 title fall short
Mercedes bosses have left open the possibility of disciplinary action against Lewis Hamilton after he ignored their orders in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in a last-gasp bid to retain the F1 world title.
Hamilton was leading the race when he deliberately slowed the pace to allow the field to catch up to him and title rival Nico Rosberg, who was running in second.
If the British driver won the race, he needed Rosberg to finish fourth or lower in order to retain his world title. By slowing the pace he hoped to give other drivers the chance to overtake Rosberg.
The tactic did not work and while Hamilton won the race, Rosberg held on to second to give him enough drivers’ championship points to secure the world title.
Third-place finisher Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel, a compatriot of Rosberg, described Hamilton’s tactics as ‘‘dirty tricks’’.
Team orders had come in for Hamilton on the radio as he maintained a slow speed.
‘‘Lewis, this is Paddy we need you to pick up the pace to win this race,’’ the team’s technical head Paddy Lowe told him.
‘‘Right now, I’m losing the world championship so I’m not bothered if I’m going to lose the race,’’ Hamilton replied.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff warned of potential ‘‘anarchy’’ and said he had yet to decide how to respond to a situation that threatened to undermine the team. Wolff would not go as far as Vettel, however, but recognised Hamilton had ignored clear top-level instructions issued by technical head Paddy Lowe to speed up. He added that while that could be understood in the circumstances, it was also a road that led to chaos.
‘‘Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team. It is very simple. Anarchy does not work in any team and in any company,’’ Wolff said.
‘‘The other half (of me) says it was his only chance of winning the championship... and maybe you cannot demand of a racing driver that is one of the best, if not the best, to comply in a situation where his instincts cannot make him.
‘‘It is about finding a solution as to how to solve that in the future because a precedent has been set,’’ added the Austrian.
Asked directly whether Hamilton, a triple world champion who has won 10 races for the team this season with 12 pole positions, could expect punishment, Wolff said ‘‘everything is possible’’.
‘‘Maybe we want to give them more freedom. Or do (we take) the more harsh side that we feel the values were not respected. I am not sure yet where my finger is going to point or the needle is going to go.
‘‘You need to win and to lose with dignity,’’ he said.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, who has clashed with Wolff several times this season, said the criticism of Hamilton was unfair.
‘‘He didn’t do anything dirty, he didn’t do anything against the rules. I think it would be unfair to criticise Lewis for the way that he drove,’’ Horner said.