Toto Wolff accused of mind games by ‘not telling truth’ on radio to Lewis Hamilton

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has been accused of playing mind games by 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton’s former rival says Wolff labelled Mercedes’ car “undriveable” to deflect from the British driver’s struggles this season.

He says evidence for that is Hamilton’s teammate George Russell has been able to produce results in the same car.

Mercedes’ new driver is the only competitor to finish in the top five in every race so far this season.

“Toto was playing the mental game, which is very smart on his behalf,” Rosberg told Sky Sports F1. “[Mercedes are] taking the blame themselves, really trying to support Lewis mentally, lifting him up and saying, ‘Hey, Lewis, it’s not your doing, it’s really on us’. That’s very smart because it’s not quite the truth.

“Let’s not forget Russell is in P4 with that same car, so Lewis definitely had a big role to play in that poor result this weekend. Russell still managed to get P4 out of it with a brilliant weekend, so there was more in that car.”

Russell is in fourth in the driver standings so far this season while Hamilton is in seventh. Hamilton was hoping to win a record eighth world title this season but he has now readjusted his goals.

“We stick together, we try to motive everyone,” he said. “This is the situation that we’re faced with but, everyone’s got their head down, everyone’s working as hard as they can.

“We’re obviously not fighting for this championship but, we’re fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year. That’s all we can hope for right now.”

Hamilton and Russell will get the chance to climb the standings on 8 May at the Miami Grand Prix.