As German team capitulates, furious principal Wolff fumes over their ‘Armageddon’ weekend
Team principal Toto Wolff compared Mercedes’ capitulation at their home German Grand Prix to Armageddon.
Lewis Hamilton crashed from the lead of the race while
Valtteri Bottas ended in the wall following a late spin.
Mercedes have been celebrating their 200th race and 125 years of motorsport at Hockenheim this weekend, with team personnel dressing in retro clothing to honour the landmark events. The German car manufacturer’s president Ola Kallenius was in attendance for the first time as boss, while Netflix has also been following Mercedes’ every move for the second series of Formula One’s fly-on-the-wall documentary, Drive to Survive..
“This shows that you shouldn’t fool around with stuff, and that you should concentrate
on the job,” said Wolff, seemingly in reference to the team’s period costumes. “We are not superstitious but we believe in karma. Maybe you get distracted, and maybe you do things differently to how you would normally do them. We were celebrating 125 years here, the board are here, and all the Netflix guys are here.
“It was a terrible day for us. With Valtteri crashing out, it ended in an Armageddon weekend for us.”
Hamilton blamed Mercedes for wrongly switching him from wet tyres to slicks. He crashed on his first lap out of the pits.
Bottas, whose future beyond this season is uncertain, should have salvaged second place, but the Finn hit the wall in the closing stages after losing control of his Mercedes at the opening bend.
The TV cameras cut to a furious Wolff who banged both fists on his desk.
Despite their failure to score any points, Hamilton and Mercedes remain in charge of both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship ahead of the final race before the summer break in Hungary next weekend.
“You never go home and say why the f*** didn’t we win, you say why the f*** did we lose,” added Wolff. “This is certainly going to be the discussion that we will have tomorrow. We are united in the team.”