F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton 'felt disrespected' by Wolff and Lowe

Lewis Hamilton says he "felt quite disrespected" by Mercedes bosses Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe over their handling of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

With the championship on the line, Hamilton backed up Nico Rosberg during the latter stages of the race in an attempt to leave his team-mate under threat from Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen behind. Hamilton's approach was due to him needing to win the race and have Rosberg finish outside the top three in order to defend his title.

Lowe informed Hamilton to speed up during the race - something Wolff called the highest escalation of the Mercedes team order - before Wolff himself suggested the Briton could be punished for ignoring the call. While he won the race but lost the championship, Hamilton cites the situation as one he remains unhappy with.

"That was one of many uncomfortable moments of the year," Hamilton told Channel 4. "Ultimately, seeing what had been said afterwards, I felt quite disrespected by the individuals who had spoken. You don't expect that from those who are in charge of so many people."

Although Wolff has since admitted Mercedes should have let the two drivers race, when asked if the situation has since been resolved, Hamilton replied: "No, it hasn't."

And the triple world champion admits he is still struggling to come to terms with suffering reliability problems in 2016, such as when he retired from the lead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

"When you have something in your head, it's there. You think it can't be a coincidence that all these things have happened."

When Hamilton's comments were put to Rosberg himself, the retiring drivers' champion added: "So he felt disrespected? OK, interesting. That's a new one."

Silbermann says ... Stay away Felipe

Romain Grosjean column: 2016 showed exciting Haas potential

TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Williams FW38

Jorge Lorenzo: When a two-wheel champion tests a Mercedes

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Bearman gives harsh verdict on Sao Paulo stand-in

Oliver Bearman got quite the early morning wake-up call on Friday in Sao Paulo when…

3 hours ago

Red Bull still 'looking at the facts' regarding Perez's performance

While his team mate Max Verstappen thrilled the fans with a run from 17th on…

4 hours ago

Sad Colapinto laments two crashes in one day in Sao Paulo

Williams suffered a bruising time on Sunday in Sao Paulo, with Alex Albon unable to…

6 hours ago

McLaren: No regrets over timing of Norris pit stop in Sao Paulo GP

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about their…

7 hours ago

Williams' Boutsen hoists the mainsail in Adelaide

On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…

8 hours ago

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

9 hours ago