Lewis Hamilton snatched the first place in Austin Nico Rosberg behind to overtake him on the inside into the first corner and force the German out of the track on the outside. Both came even to touch and that caused Rosberg to lose several positions, but Hamilton says that he did it on purpose and that simply came past, and the humidity of the track prevented him from closing the path.
Toto Wolff admits that, after the incident, had “conversations regularly and we discuss it after Austin, both are absolutely aware of the situation”, emphasizing that “there is no need to talk about it” in relation to the race in the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Mercedes has always taken a neutral position, giving freedom to their pilots in most of the occasions, something no doubt influenced by the great superiority that the team takes on their rivals. “we Want to see them compete and not agree to anything before the start of the race about who reaches first the curve and who comes second”, stated Wolff, who asserted that this “would that everything were a lot less interesting. We continue encouraging both to compete with energy and optimize their results and, obviously, for the team it is very important that there is no controversy. Of course, if both cars collide, this will cause controversy”, ” he said Wollf dropping that, even if you have freedom, you do not want to step out of line.
Faced with the question of what he thought about what happened in Austin, Wolff commented that his conclusion was that “both competed very hard between them under very difficult conditions on a curve difficult”, but also taking into account that it is not “the professor and they are the two best pilots. There comes a point at which the responsibility is in your hands. The fundamental rule remains the same: we don’t want controversy or tension in the team”.
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