Toto Wolff has played down comments made to Lewis Hamilton criticising his uncharacteristic off the pace performance in qualifying in Sochi. The Briton was over half a second down on the time set by Sebastian Vettel who will start today's Grand Prix from pole position.
Hamilton was also a long way off the pace of teammate Valtteri Bottas and it is the second race in a row that Hamilton will start behind his Finnish teammate. Wolff, however, says that his faith is Hamilton is as strong as ever.
"Lewis is an outstanding driver, but he is not at his usual level this weekend," Mercedes boss Wolff told the Austrian broadcaster ORF. "We are still investigating why this is the case.
"He is just not happy with the car, and on a track like this I think you need a car that feels good. You have to realise that although he is a great driver, even he has bad days. In addition, Valtteri has been really good here in the last few years," Wolff added.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also spoke about the shock Ferrari one-two in qualifying and reckons that Toto Wolff should be worried about the threat from the Maranello based team
"For me the Ferrari is the best car in the field," he is quoted by Speed Week. "If I was Toto I'd be worried, because Seb makes less mistakes over a season than Lewis. And maybe he's mentally stronger than Lewis too."
Fergal Walsh
Replies (1)
Login to replyf1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
it will be interesting to see how he does in the race