Toto Wolff blamed for Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari misery

Toto Wolff, and the habits Lewis Hamilton learnt at Mercedes, have been blamed for the F1 champion’s Ferrari misery.

Ferrari’s woes deepened last time out in Baku, where Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished a disappointing eighth and ninth respectively.

As a result, the team have slipped below Mercedes in the constructors’ standings, and are even in danger of finishing the season fourth after Red Bull’s resurgence.

Alongside their clear lack of performance, Ferrari were also involved in a team orders fiasco, where Hamilton was let past Leclerc to chase down the cars ahead.

When he failed to do so and was instructed to give eighth back to Leclerc at the end of the race, Hamilton failed to slow for the chequered flag and thus finished ahead of his team-mate.

However, Hamilton’s misery really began in qualifying, where he was knocked out in Q2 and criticised his team for the tyre choice.

Does Hamilton need to be more instructive at Ferrari?

Hamilton and Ferrari’s miserable outing in Baku has been dissected by Ralf Schumacher on the Sky Sports Germany podcast Backstage Boxengasse, with the ex F1 driver demanding that Hamilton take responsibility instead of blaming the team for their tyre choice.

“He has to take responsibility for that himself, with his experience and his power. I wasn't a seven-time world champion, I only won a few races, but if I wanted a certain tyre, I got it. There was no discussion whatsoever,” he said.

“At the end of the day, it's the driver who has to implement it, who knows best what the conditions are like out there and who can best assess himself and the car. A normal engineer would never get in the way of a driver.”

Hamilton has had to adjust to major changes at Ferrari after over a decade with Mercedes, with Schumacher claiming old habits are hindering him at his new team.

“But that would fit in with the image that Toto Wolff often talked about: ‘Drivers are there to drive, we don't involve them in decisions at all, we just tell them what to do’,” said Schumacher.

"Lewis has to assert himself and not look for the mistake elsewhere. Then qualifying will look different – ​​that's what you'd expect from a seven-time world champion."

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