One thing that Mercedes has had over the years is bullet-proof reliability, thus Formula 1 was shocked when the silver cars parked on the side of the track during the Austrian Grand Prix to record their first double DNF since their return, also the first time since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.
For Lewis Hamilton, it was his first retirement since the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix when his race ended up in smoke while he enjoyed a strong lead. In retrospect, the DNF that day cost him the world championship title which went to his teammate (at the time) Nico Rosberg.
After the reigning F1 World Champion's latest non-finish at Red Bull Ring, team chief Toto Wolff revealed to Sky how Hamilton galvanised the 'troops' in a time of defeat, "Lewis came on the radio and said:
I don't know how many are listening in Brixworth and Brackley, but I cannot remember when I last had a DNF. This team has had the best reliability over the last years, this team has had by far the best car and is by far the best team I have driven for. We need to recover from this but I am in no doubt that we'll come back strong."
I don't know how many are listening in Brixworth and Brackley, but I cannot remember when I last had a DNF. This team has had the best reliability over the last years, this team has had by far the best car and is by far the best team I have driven for. We need to recover from this but I am in no doubt that we'll come back strong."
"That is his mindset," added Wolff. "We have to analyse what went wrong, try to not do it again, try to understand how we can best avoid it and then get our mind back to Silverstone, and race as good as we can there."
As a result of the double DNF, Hamilton dropped to second in the championship standings trailing Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by a point after nine rounds. and the Reds now also top the constructors' standings by ten points.
Latest News
Loading
