Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff says the world champions “have to find out” why Lewis Hamilton has been struggling against Nico Rosberg over the final stretch of the 2015 season.
The Briton clinched his third world title in Austin with three races to spare but was outshone by his team-mate thereafter, as the German ended up winning the last three grands prix from pole position.
Having been repeatedly quizzed to give an explanation about Hamilton’s late slump, Wolff repeats that he does not have any definite answers for the moment.
“There has been so much discussion about whether [Rosberg] has stepped up his game or has the car come towards him development-wise, or has Lewis just taken it more easily unconsciously – certainly not consciously,” he said.
“We have to have an intelligent list in the next couple of weeks to analyse. I think we have to find out. At the end of the day for Lewis the world championship title mattered but then those last couple of races saw really great driving from Nico.”
Hamilton says he has been feeling uncomfortable with set-up changes brought to the W06 after Singapore, which would have helped shift the momentum towards Rosberg.
Asked to comment on the triple world champion’s claims, the Mercedes boss replied:
“The car is being developed and improved, and after Singapore we developed in a different direction.
“We took some learning on board of that weekend and whether the car has come more towards Nico and more towards Lewis, I don’t know if it could be a factor.
“I wouldn’t want to reduce the situation to one single factor, there could be many different factors coming into play.
“The drivers are very much part of the package and Lewis mentioned a couple of days ago that he didn’t feel the car was as good as it was before.
“If he says that, it is something we need to consider and see whether we have data to support it or not. Whatever the outcome is, we will discuss and see what we can do.”
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