Toto Wolff has completed a full U-turn on his views regarding Lewis Hamilton’s behaviour during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
At the season finale last month, the Briton had backed teammate Nico Rosberg towards the chasing pack as he looked to push the German out of the positions he needed to become champion.
Throughout the second half of the race, Hamilton’s engineer and later team boss Paddy Lowe came on the radio asking Lewis to increase his pace.
He refused and by the chequered flag the top four were almost crawling to the end such was the slowness of the lead Mercedes.
Wolff described Hamilton as ‘anarchy’ with his tactics and it appeared the three-time world champion would be severely punished by the team.
Since last Friday, however, when Rosberg announced his retirement, Mercedes have backed down over the events at Yas Marina and now Wolff is actually pinning the blame on the team.
“In the heat of the moment, sometimes when you make decisions you get them wrong,” he said concededly to Sky Sports.
“In our mind, the way we think, this race is giving us the same number of points as other races and we try to win that one, not considering that there was much more at stake for the drivers.
“How the race panned out, we should have communicated differently and in hindsight let them race in the way they deemed to be appropriate.”
It is shocking, if not surprising, to see such an incredible climb down from Toto’s original position.
The Austrian is known for his business acumen and therefore always putting the interests of the team first, but I have sometimes been critical of that as it shows a lack of respect for the Drivers’ title.
Of course, much of this humble pie now comes with Hamilton as the lead driver and potentially left with a young up and comer in Pascal Wehrlein as a teammate for 2017.
But Wolff did also seem to finally acknowledge the importance of individual success for the drivers as well as doing a job for the team.
He indicated that Mercedes: “Need to change our values and our rules of engagement going forward.”
This would indicate that perhaps the environment for the drivers at the team hasn’t always been favourable.
Certainly, the responses to on-track incidents have often made Rosberg and Hamilton appear to be naughty school kids being told off by the headmaster rather than two warriors going all out for a world title.
Hamilton reportedly was prepared to quit after the pair collided in Spain this year because of his displeasure at the way it was handled off the track.
It may have also played a role in Rosberg’s decision to immediately retire once becoming world champion.
His announcement did cause a massive quake to ripple through the hierarchy at Mercedes. Now it has obviously caused this change in heart from Wolff and if this new outlook on the individual battle remains we could look forward to a more entertaining battle between Hamilton and whoever will line up alongside him.
