Strategy remains same for season

Lewis Hamilton has been told by his Mercedes team they will not change strategy despite the Briton being frustrated by what he called a “boring” Brazilian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, who won the Formula One championship in Texas last month, followed his team-mate Nico Rosberg home for the second race in succession on Sunday.

But the Briton spent a large part of the race on the team radio desperate to stretch the tactical imagination of his Mercedes team, who refused to break from their mantra of running identical strategies for both of their drivers.

Rosberg and Hamilton pitted on three occasions, a lap apart, in an uneventful race.

“If the driver in the car starts to make the strategy he is going to lose every single race,” said Mercedes principal Toto Wolff.

“Their instincts might be right sometimes, but if they do not have the full set of data they are going to get the majority of the races wrong, and that is why we will keep it like this.

“The driver being emotional in the car is understandable. We hired guard dogs and we don’t want any puppies.

“But we have had our principles with this one strategy since 2013. It has worked well and will not change.”

Hamilton called for Formula One’s complex technical rules to be changed in a bid to spice up the show.

“Controversy within the team is detrimental and we have kept the team together because the team comes first. The boring answer is that we are not going to change it,” said Wolff.

Toto Wolff