The 2023 Qatar Grand Prix saw the two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, take each other out on Lap 1. While Russell was able to continue and finish the race in P4, it was all over for Hamilton. This was an almost replica of Hamilton’s collision with Nico Rosberg back in 2016 in Spain. Now, as things stand, Toto Wolff is expected to bring team orders to the team.
Even though the two Silver Arrows drivers collided, it did cause a huge loss as the championship race is already over. As they were not vying for the title now, therefore, there wasn’t much at stake.
However, the intra-team rivalry between the drivers in the team is getting clearer and if this takes place a few more times, things might turn out similar to the Hamilton and Rosberg days. Therefore, Ralf Schumacher believes Toto Wolff is about to bring team orders in Mercedes.
Ralf Schumacher believes Toto Wolff will do the needful after the Qatar GP crash
Schumacher has recently opened up about the latest collision between Hamilton and Russell. He said that the drivers made Mercedes lose a lot of points, therefore, the team would do the needful now.
Talking about this, the former German driver said to Sky Sports, as per GP Blog, “Lewis [Hamilton] sent in too early and simply did not give George enough space. Mercedes looked strong and threw away a lot of points. Now, there is some work to do between the two.”
Following this, he added, “You can deal with each other however you want, but the team will have to intervene from now on, and it will.” Nevertheless, Hamilton came up to take accountability for the crash and apologized to Russell in the end.
Lewis Hamilton took the responsibility for the Qatar GP crash
As both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell collided right in the first lap, there were huge tremors inside the Mercedes camp. Many thought this could be the beginning of an intra-team tussle between the two drivers.
However, the seven-time world champion came up to take full responsibility for the crash after seeing the footage himself. This helped calm the tremor that began to form within the team.
Nevertheless, this might not be the end of such close calls as the duo are not ready to leave an inch for each other as both Hamilton and Russell are expected to vie for the top position in the team.
