Hamilton and Mercedes "can live with" engine change points loss to Verstappen

Ewan Gale
Thursday 21 October 2021 04:00

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the team can "live with" the points loss to Max Verstappen in Turkey that sees Lewis Hamilton enter the United States Grand Prix six points behind in the drivers' title.

Verstappen finished second at Istanbul Park with Hamilton fifth after an ICE change, meaning a swing of eight points in the standings to give the Red Bull driver the championship lead ahead of the weekend at what is believed to be one of the Briton's "strongholds" in F1 at Austin.

But with Verstappen losing a point less to his rival when taking his engine change in Russia, Red Bull could be the happier team with their damage limitation, given a back of the grid start followed a complete PU change.

"For Lewis, the absolute view of Turkey is that he lost one point more than Max did in the previous race in Russia with a similar engine change, which we can live with," said Wolff.

"The relative view when you're in the heat of a race is to always want another position, to score more points - that's who we are as racers and we wouldn't want that competitive intensity any other way."

Valtteri Bottas could hold the key to the destination of the constructors' title, with his victory last time out, stretching the lead for Mercedes to 36 points.

Wolff is hoping this will kickstart an end of season purple patch for the Finn, adding: "Istanbul was a dominant performance from Valtteri in tricky conditions, taking his first win of the season.

"A faultless drive from him and he was in control of the race from the very beginning.

"It's a brilliant boost for him and the team heading into the final part of the season and helping us to extend our lead in the constructors' standings."