Mercedes boss defends Lewis Hamilton after troubled Suzuka weekend

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has defended Lewis Hamilton after the World Champion endured a tough weekend in Suzuka.

After a controversy over his behavior in an FIA press conference, Hamilton was beaten to pole by Nico Rosberg, told the media at a later event that he would not answer questions, and then made a bad start to the race, before recovering to third place.

“I’ve seen a Lewis in Malaysia that was really on a roll, dominating the weekend and then we let him down with the engine failure,” said Wolff. “That was an easy one he should have brought it home.

“During the week, with all these things around the press conference, what happened yesterday, whether it affects him or not I don’t think so, because it is not his priority. I wouldn’t bring it down to the start, because the racing was great afterward - how he recovered. It was really exceptional.

Asked if he planned to speak to Hamilton about his Suzuka weekend, Wolff pointed out that he would flying home with him on Niki Lauda’s plane.

“I am on the same flight... Just after the race is not the right moment to put the finger where it hurts. We need to calm down and find out what happened, and regroup. My learning from the last couple of years is I’ve found that 24 hours later things looks different than they appear after the race. Our main emphasis will be to build him up and enjoy the ride home before Austin. We have 10 days. It is not such a rush like last week, and he will come back strong in Austin.”

Regarding the title battle and Rosberg’s advantage he said: “Thirty-three points is a lot, but you can see how quick it goes. Look, in Malaysia he’s leading, then has a problem and that’s a 25-point loss and it is down to eight. This is still a mechanical sport, and the way Nico has approached it by looking at each weekend as a singular event has been the right strategy for Nico. Lewis functions best when he’s under pressure, and when he has a target. And I have no doubt this will be an intense fight to the end. It is far from over.

“There are four weekends to go. He will regroup... He is very strong, he needs the enemy, and that is how he functions. I think it is going to go down to the end.”

Wolff said there would be no changes to the “rules of engagement” between his drivers.

“No. We let them race, we haven’t changed that before and if we would start to tweak certain details it would open up a can of worms, we have worked on principal well and functions well, we have not had team orders - which are not popular with fans and we don’t want either - so they are free to race.”