Lewis Hamilton has urged Mercedes not to establish team orders following yet another collision between him and Nico Rosberg at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton had been hunting down his race-leading team-mate for some time when he launched an attack on the outside of Turn 2 on the final lap. Having covered the inside, Rosberg ran into the Briton, picking up substantial damage that dropped him to P4 while Hamilton went on to win.
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff was fuming in the aftermath of the incident, branding the latest clash in a series of flashpoints as “brainless” before warning his drivers that team orders “are now on the table”.
Hamilton, who immediately blamed Rosberg for “colliding with me”, further explains why he is not a fan of such radical measures, citing his “love for racing”.
“I grew up wanting to race, and to get to Formula One and race the best and be the best by out driving another individual,” the triple world champion offered.
“I think they showed a replay of maybe Michael [Schumacher] and [Rubens] Barrichello many years ago [in Austria 2002] and I was disappointed as a fan back then and we never want to see team orders like that ever happen.
“The great thing is that Toto and [Mercedes non-executive chairman] Niki [Lauda] have been great these past three years in allowing us to race and that’s what racing is about, and it’s not always going to be blue skies and perfect, but that’s motor racing.
“We’re driving at 200+mph and you expect us to drive around and never, ever, ever have a problem? I doubt it so I hope that it doesn’t change and I hope that we can continue to race.”
Although Hamilton admits the end result was not ideal, the 31-year-old adds that wheel-to-wheel racing and the drama sometimes associated with it are exactly what the fans crave for.
“I don’t know how exciting it was to watch but I can imagine. For me in the car it was exciting and I can imagine outside it was exciting to watch and ultimately I think the fans want to see this kind of racing.
“I live for racing, so I feel fantastic right now, and I hope that I’m excited moving on, hopefully to ride this wave onto the next race.”
After reviewing the incident, the Red Bull Ring stewards eventually ruled that Rosberg was at fault and handed him a 10-second time penalty as well as a reprimand.
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