Toto Wolff to discuss Mexico team orders with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton

Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton after Mexico GP qualifying — Photo: © LAT Images

Mexico City Grand Prix

Wolff to discuss Mexico team orders with Bottas and Hamilton

The duo start first and second on the grid

Ian Parkes

Sunday 7 November 2021 08:15

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff is to discuss team orders with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton following a shock front-row lock-out for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Bottas surprisingly spearheaded a Mercedes one-two in qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to provide the team with the strategic upper hand over Red Bull who line up third and fourth with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

The talk going into the weekend had centred on whether Red Bull would have to implement team orders should Perez be leading his home race ahead of Verstappen as the team was expected to dominate, and did so in practice.

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But with the tables turned, it is now Wolff who has to figure out his strategy should the one-two prevail late into the race with Bottas ahead of Hamilton.

"A front-row lock-out feels really good as it was somehow unexpected," said Wolff. "But it's all about catching up on these valuable points. That's clear.

"Most important is to stay ahead at the start, then from there it is easier to manage the race."

Asked whether team orders had already been discussed, Wolff replied: "No, we haven't discussed it because we felt we were not in a position to consider it.

"It was such a long shot, talking about the victory before qualifying but the situation is different now and we are going to address it as we always do at the strategy meeting."

Wolff had made clear on Friday his stance on team orders, that he "hated every second" in having to tell Bottas to give up a win in the 2018 Russian GP to allow Hamilton to take the win given his championship position at that time.

On this occasion, Hamilton goes into today's race 12 points adrift of Verstappen and needs to claw back as much of that deficit as possible.

While from the outside looking in the situation seems clear, Wolff added: "I'm a racer, and I feel such discussion [on team orders] is something that is always disappointing in a way but sometimes the circumstances oblige that.

"We will address it and discuss it first with Valtteri and Lewis because they are both involved in such discussions, and then we will see whether the race scenario obliges us to make any such call."