Toto Wolff’s radio to Hamilton in the middle of the Austrian GP was conclusive: “Lewis, the car is bad. We know. Please drive it.” The Englishman had complained throughout the race about the difficulties in driving the Mercedes, also to keep it within the track limits in the last two corners of Spielberg. Hours later he would receive a second penalty that sent him to ninth position which contrasts with the podiums he achieved in the two previous races (second in Barcelona, third in Montreal).
The response of the head of Mercedes sounded strong, although the pilot did not appreciate it in front of the media: “What did you mean? I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him.” Wolff took iron from him. “It was nothing, you should listen to us talk on the phone. It won’t have any impact. It’s just a bad weekend.” summarized the Austrian leader. But it’s not a secret that Hamilton and Toto are working out the last details of their next contract with Mercedes, and that they would still have time to announce it before the British GP. Although these radios do not help.
On the behavior of the W14 on the track, Hamilton specified: “It was slow, simply. We removed a lot of front wing, We knew we weren’t strong in the rear so we tried to remove the front wing to balance. But in turn 10 he was always sliding and he couldn’t do more. It’s not a surprise, but the feeling with the car was more or less the same as last year. He had been better in the last few races, that’s for sure”.
After the FIA sanctions dance, Hamilton is fourth in the Drivers’ Championship with 106 points, 25 behind the third, Alonso, although with a certain advantage over his teammate Russell (7th, 72 points). Mercedes still defends the second position in constructors (177 points) ahead of Aston Martin (3rd, 166) and Ferrari (4th, 148). But the differences are shortened and in each grand prix one of the three single-seaters is the outstanding reference behind Red Bull.