Drama unfolds between Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wollf during the Austrian GP following the Brit’s ‘blame game’ on Sergio Perez

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and team boss Toto Wolff had a distasteful conversation regarding Sergio Perez and the car’s performance at Austria.

Drama unfolds between Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wollf during the Austrian GP following the Brit’s ‘blame game’ on Sergio Perez

Lewis Hamilton, Toto Wolff and Sergio Perez

The 2023 Austrian GP was a bit of a shocker for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Having gotten a poor result in sprint qualifying, it seemed like Mercedes just didn’t have it in them to compete at the top at the Red Bull Ring. The track has never been good for the team due to its reliability issues solely focused on the track being at a high altitude. However, that didn’t affect the team fortunately.

Sunday’s race was filled with drama as penalties for track limits kept coming for the drivers. While Max Verstappen was busy disappearing from the pack ahead, Lewis Hamilton went on to become the first driver to get a 5 second penalty for track limits. The Brit later went on to have a full blown fight with Sergio Perez on track where he couldn’t fend off the Mexican minister of defence. This in turn led to him becoming a makeshift steward for the remainder of the race.

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As Lewis Hamilton was stuck behind Sergio Perez’s Red Bull’s he was monitoring every movement of the Mexican. According to Lewis, Perez was evading track limits constantly which would lead to a potential penalty. “Yep, Perez went off at turn 10. if they’re dishing these things out, they might as well know,” he said. A couple laps later, he asked again, “He is completely off Turn 10. Has he got a penalty yet?” 

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Related: Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur voices frustration with underwhelming SF-23 upgrades

Toto Wolff orders Lewis Hamilton to focus on his own race

Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff

Lewis Hamilton was clearly frustrated being the first person to have the race stewards penalise him. He later asked Toto Wolff about others getting penalties. “Has anyone else got penalties yet?” he said. “Lewis, they’re all going to get penalties in front of you. All of them. So keep going,” Toto Wolff replied shutting down any follow up questions from the Mercedes driver.

Following Aston Martin’s protest after the Austrian GP, multiple drivers were handed with post race penalties. Lewis Hamilton was one of the drivers who received a 10 second penalty for abusing track limits at Austria. This meant that he actually finished 8th this weekend. It was not the best of races for the 7 time F1 world champ. To take the fight to Max Verstappen and Red Bull, the Mercedes squad will have to put in a lot of efforts.

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