Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff plays down the radio announcements to Lewis Hamilton during the Formula 1 race in Austria and therefore sees no impact on the ongoing negotiations for a new contract for the seven-time Formula 1 world champion.
Wolff got into Hamilton’s car several times in Spielberg to calm the Briton. When Hamilton asked about his five-second track limit penalty if other drivers had been penalized, Wolff said, “Lewis, everyone will get penalties before you. Everyone. So just keep driving.”
But the issue continued to concern Hamilton, who later asked for a reason why the commissioners had not yet imposed further penalties. But Wolff prevented that: “Lewis, the car is bad, we know that. Please drive it,” he warned to concentrate.
A curt Hamilton couldn’t say why Wolff had reported so often during the race: “I don’t know. You have to ask him yourself,” he says.
Wolff himself says that with all the track limit discussions he felt “I just wanted to make sure we were getting the best out of the package that wasn’t working and just giving the best of what we have.”
“I mean well!”
It is rare for the head of motorsport to get on the radio himself, and as he emphasizes, he does it “only for the good of the drivers and in the best interests of the drivers and the team”. And sometimes there are just situations where you need to calm things down a bit. “I mean well,” he clarifies.
And Wolff also makes it clear that there are no tensions with Hamilton, who still has no new contract for 2024. “You should hear how we talk to each other on the phone and at meetings. That’s nothing,” he says.
And it doesn’t affect the contract negotiations either: “No, not at all. I think we all had a bad weekend in the team and that only makes us stronger.”
Wolff emphasizes: It’s not about the money!
He still sees Hamilton’s contract extension on track and doesn’t want to give a timely deadline for it either. He doesn’t see any delays, and the fact that it’s not already clear is what Wolff says is that you want to do everything “super” down to the smallest detail. “Sometimes you can have a situation where everything gets hollowed out,” he explains.
Here, and he also makes it clear, it is not a question of money. “It’s about the future, it’s about what we want to do right and optimize. We no longer talk about duration, money and all that, it’s just other topics.”
The contract extension would not only cover the 2024 season, but several years. Wolff: “I’ve never understood the British. They say “couple” means two, the Americans say “couple” means more. It’s in that area.”