AUSTIN, OCT 21 – The Mercedes team admits they are struggling with ‘issues’ after seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in the fifth round of the United States Grand Prix yesterday.
Toto Wolff, the team’s CEO referred to mechanical problems and said Hamilton’s retirement was ‘one hundred per cent mechanical’ and said, “Lewis Hamilton usually doesn’t lose a car on the fifth lap like this.”
Wolff also spoke about inconsistent steward decisions including a five-second penalty for George Russell who finished sixth after starting from the pit lane.
Wolf wondered in an apparent reference to the stewards’ decision to hand McLaren’s Lando Norris a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage when he was forced off the track as he passed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“It’s not consistent,” he said. “Yesterday, we have seen a number of similar incidents but not penalized where the race to get the real position and to receive a penalty like that is a strange decision.
“I think we all know, but obviously you can’t say it on television when some decisions are made at the end. Sometimes, there is a correlation between when the decision made is ‘quite interesting’,” he said again. – AFP
