'Nobody Does That On Purpose': Wolff Defends Hamilton Following Impeding Incident
F1Friday, 08 March 2024 at 22:00
Toto Wolff defended his driver, Lewis Hamilton after he heavily impeded Logan Sargeant on a fast lap during the FP2 session.
Jeddah Corniche circuit is a track full of blind corners, where drivers don't see what is ahead or behind them. Therefore, they fully rely on messages from their engineers, which are supposed to inform them about cars around them.
However, Lewis Hamilton's team didn't inform him about the fast-approaching Logan Sargeant in turn 11, which almost caused a very serious high-speed crash.
The collision was fortunately avoided, but FIA decided to fine Mercedes €15,000 and give the seven-time World Champion a warning for the incident.
The team principal of Silver Arrows, Toto Wolff, commented on the incident after the end of the session, and he told the media:
"I saw the moment, but I don't know if Lewis got the message that Sargeant was coming. In any case, it was dangerous, and it could have resulted in a big crash, but nobody does that on purpose, especially not Lewis."
Stewards decided Hamilton wasn't completely responsible for the incident, and that's why it was his team and not him that received the fine.
Wolff also discussed Mercedes's progress throughout the two practice sessions on Thursday ahead of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix:
"We drove with two totally different set-ups, and it turned out that with Lewis, it doesn't work at all. We are going to change that towards qualifying."
Max Verstappen and George Russell both said they expect a very close qualifying., Wolff also suggested that he expects at least eight cars, maybe even within three-tenths of a second.
"The car is getting faster and faster in terms of lap time, so we have to think carefully about what we do for qualifying."
"It's hard to say where we stand. I think eight cars will be very close together, there might again be only three-tenths between those positions."
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