Fifth Column: Nigel Roebuck

A little friction goes a long way in motor racing, but is Toto Wolff right to suggest that his Mercedes team needs more ‘disruption’?

CONTRASTING VIEWS LAST WEEK FROM THE TWO world championship protagonists of 2017: Lewis Hamilton said there was no excuse for Formula 1’s producing less spectacular racing than Formula 2, while Sebastian Vettel suggested that those unhappy with the lack of overtaking should stop complaining, and accept that some grands prix will always be boring.

It was perhaps Abu Dhabi that prompted Hamilton to say what he did, for while the grand prix was beyond tedious, the two Formula 2 races provided excellent racing, and relatively unsophisticated ‘aero’ had much to do with it.

I can’t take issue with Vettel’s contention that ‘overtaking should be an achievement, and not handed to you’ – of course it should, which is why so many of us loathe DRS, and, like Ross Brawn, wish to see it expunged from Formula 1.

Seb is right, too, to remind us that inevitably some races are going to fall short, for such has always been the case. In my youth I went to countless races pretty certain that – if his car lasted – Jim Clark was going to win. Invariably his Lotus was at least as quick as any other car, and he was the best driver. QED.

That did not, though, necessarily mean we were in for a wearisome afternoon. For one thing, no-one had a huge power advantage; for another, it was easily possible to sit right on another car’s tail through a corner. In short, Jimmy might be unassailable, but still everyone could race.

At Spa Vettel spent the entire race in company with Hamilton, and in a Ferrari that he and Lewis agreed was that day superior to the Mercedes – yet, even with DRS, in 200 miles he was unable to put a move on him.

Yes, some grands prix have always disappointed – as with any sport, it is simply in the nature of things, and will never change. Any fan can live with that: what he or she finds less easy to accept is that these days processional racing is more or less guaranteed by idiotic rules.

It’s all very well for

Seb to say people should stop carping about dull races – he is paid millions every time he goes to the grid, and that can perhaps ease the pain of a torpid afternoon. For spectators, required to fork out handsomely to watch him, it’s a different matter: if they’ve had it with goalless draws, he should understand that, and respect it.

This period of the year, right after the last race, is inevitably the quietest in Formula 1. We still await an announcement from Williams as to who will partner

Lance Stroll in 2018, but otherwise all the pieces are in place, and the drivers – save Fernando Alonso and

“Even with DRS, in 200 miles Seb was unable to put a move on Lewis”

Stroll, who are competing in the Daytona 24 Hours next month – are footloose until testing gets under way at Barcelona in late February.

Not much going on, then, but Toto Wolff rippled the waters at the weekend with his assertion that Mercedes needed ‘disruption’ between its drivers if the team were to perform at its highest level.

Oh Lordy, talk about be careful what you wish for…

One sort of understands what Toto is getting at, but do Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas see it that way?

Following the retirement of Nico Rosberg and the arrival of Bottas, everything was indeed harmonious at Mercedes this year. The friendship between Nico and Lewis, as karting kids, perhaps inevitably metamorphosed into ‘baggage’ when they became team-mates in 2013 – the more so a year later when the hybrid era began, bringing with it Mercedes domination. For three seasons the world championship distilled to a two-hander, and there were tensions, let’s say.

It’s been different this year, for although there were weekends when Bottas had the better of Hamilton, overall his season was patchy, and he was not the threat to Lewis that Rosberg had been – indeed it was only in 2017, I think, that some came to appreciate just how good Nico was. Certainly he had the ability to unsettle Lewis, and that contributed to occasionally… erratic behaviour.

Teamed with Bottas, though, Hamilton has been relatively serene, which served to confirm, apart from anything else, how much Rosberg managed to get under his skin. As well as that, while again having but one challenger in the world championship, this time Lewis at last faced someone from another team, and, as Alain Prost will tell you of his feud with Ayrton Senna, any driver finds that infinitely preferable to fighting with his team-mate.

The fact that suddenly Mercedes found itself facing genuine opposition, in the shape of Ferrari, in itself had a unifying effect on the team, and the calm, apolitical, presence of Bottas contributed further to that.

After the summer break, though, Valtteri’s season took an emphatic downturn, the popular theory being that this was in response to an instruction from Wolff that from now on he was to play a supporting role in Hamilton’s quest for a fourth world championship. Whatever, for quite a while Bottas simply wasn’t at the races, and it was only at the tail end of the season that he picked up again.

While Lewis may have been long regarded as the de facto number one at Mercedes, in 2017 it was manifestly acknowledged, and in this environment he thrived as never before, rather dispelling the time-honoured maxim that racing drivers give of their best when pressured by the other man in the same car.

Hence my surprise at Wolff’s remarks at the weekend, which seem to suggest that within his team he thinks everything a little too cosy. “I don’t think we need to avoid a stressful situation,” Toto said. “We’re not trying to build a new family here – we want to be the most effective racing team, and that needs stress, tension, disruption, as much it needs calmness and a positive mindset.”

Not sure Lewis would agree.