Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton “destroyed” by Azerbaijan pain

Hamilton, Mercedes, Azerbaijan — Photo: © LAT Images

Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Wolff and Hamilton “destroyed” by Azerbaijan pain

Hamilton dropped to the back of the field after locking up during a late-race restart

Sam Hall

Sunday 6 June 2021 18:00

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed both he and Lewis Hamilton had been left "destroyed" by a late-race error from the seven-time F1 champion that dropped him to the back of the pack from a potential win.

When a tyre blowout on Max Verstappen's Red Bull caused the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to be red-flagged with just three laps remaining, Hamilton was second and in position to retake the championship lead he lost in Monaco.

Upon the restart, Hamilton unwittingly knocked the 'magic' switch that dramatically adjusts the brake bias forwards.

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Although briefly stealing the lead from Sergio Perez, the Mercedes driver was helpless as his brakes locked and he slid into the turn one run-off.

“Both of us are destroyed to be honest," said Wolff. "But it is, for him obviously as a driver.

"You have it so close and then it’s all gone and for me as a guy who is running this, we just need to be the best of us, the best that we have and we haven’t given the drivers a competitive package this weekend. Far from a competitive package.

“That is the frustration, it is not only the incident at the end that frustrates, it is overall not meeting our own expectations, all of us together – Lewis, the engineers, myself, everyone in the team.”

Wolff's "toughest" day

Over the past seven years, Mercedes has rarely experienced an off day, let alone a pair of consecutive forgettable weekends, notably in Monaco where Mercedes was unable to remove the front-right tyre from Valtteri Bottas' car.

“They are the toughest because not having performance in Monaco and Valtteri who would have made it solid onto the podium, needing a pit stop of 36 hours is not really a great achievement based on the standards that we are setting ourselves," added Wolff.

“Then a car that was almost all sessions nowhere and, to be honest, cruising in third and even trying to make it was okay but it’s just not acceptable that we are not getting the car into a performing position out of the start or out of the pit stop.

“It is just we are losing seconds over seconds to get the car in a happy window where it functions. It just takes too long.”