After numerous jabs from the stewards at Mercedes this F1 weekend, team boss Toto Wolff says that ‘diplomacy has ended' despite managing to pull off a massive result at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The first incident came at the expense of Lewis Hamilton's exceptional qualifying performance. Hamilton violated F1 DRS rules and regulations after further inspection at parc ferme. This decision already caught the eye of Mercedes and claimed that it was ‘harsh'. It resulted in the Brit dropping down the grid order for the sprint race, but he managed to climb his way back to P5 in only 24 laps.
The next incident came during the main race when Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Hamilton went head to head at turn 4 of the Interlagos circuit. F1 fans watched Verstappen pull off an aggressive-defensive move to push Hamilton wide—keeping his position for the time being. F1 race control opted for no further investigation after reviewing the incident, which Wolff called a ‘laughable' decision by the stewards.
After the race, Wolff was asked if he thought Mercedes was being treated differently from the rest of the F1 teams this weekend. He shares that he does not want to whine and complain about what happened, but notes that the time for being diplomatic has come to a halt.
Via Motorsport:
“I don't want to moan here, because that is not how I see the sport,” Wolff said. “I think we've just had many, many punches in the face this weekend with decisions that could have swung either side, against us or for us…I've always been very diplomatic in how I discuss things. But diplomacy has ended today.”
To add insult to injury, Hamilton was once again summoned by the stewards after the race for undoing his seatbelt during the cooldown lap that resulted in an additional fine for the defending F1 champion.
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