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Lowe message the ‘highest escalation’ for Mercedes

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Paddy Lowe’s intervention on team radio during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was “the highest escalation” from the team.

Lowe took to team radio to tell Lewis Hamilton to increase his pace in order to ensure Mercedes won the race, as Hamilton was backing up team-mate Nico Rosberg in order to leave the German exposed to the threat from Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen behind.

With Mercedes still unsure whether to take any action regarding Hamilton ignoring instructions from the team, Wolff says the message from Lowe is the highest level of team order the team can use.

“Yes, Paddy with the instruction is the highest escalation we have in our rules of engagement,” Wolff said. “We have invented those rules of engagement together, a while ago, on a table in Melbourne.”

Wolff says he himself does not get involved with team radio messages because he doesn’t trust himself if he was able to contact the drivers during a race.

“No, because I don’t have a radio button to do that. I know myself and there is the risk I will do it, and I would have done on it several occasions in the past, and maybe regretted it afterwards … So, you need to know yourself, your skills and your strengths and weaknesses. And I know my weaknesses.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.