Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff apologized to Lewis Hamilton for providing him with a ‘poor car’ and F1 fans weren’t happy about it.
The 2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix turned out to be a miserable weekend for Hamilton. Many people speculated that Mercedes would bring in upgrades at Imola, but there was no visible jump in car performance.
Hamilton started Sunday’s race from P14, and his fans expected him to charge up the field and at-least get into the points. Well, the Brit managed to make up just one place in the end as he finished 13th.
However, his miserable outing in Imola was topped by his 2021 Championship rival Max Verstappen lapping him during the race. After the race, Wolff took to the team radio to ‘apologize’ to Hamilton.
“Hi Lewis, sorry for what you have needed to drive today,” Wolff said. “I know this is undriveable and not what we deserve to score as a result. ”
— WimboFormula1 (@Formula1Wimbo) April 24, 2022
Hamilton’s teammate Russell on the other hand, finished fourth. This prompted F1 fans on twitter to react furiously to how Toto Wolff handled the post-race radio message.
How was the car undrivable for Lewis Hamilton when Russell cruised to fourth?
Hamilton was cut no slack, mainly because of how well Russell performed. Teammates are supposed to have cars of the same specs in F1, so the fact that the latter took his W13 to P4 whereas Hamilton got lapped by Verstappen, didn’t sit right.
Reminder that Michael Schumacher qualified on pole at Imola with the cucumber he drove in 1996 and then almost won in 2005 from outside the top ten in a year where Ferrari were struggling to adapt to changes to the new regulations. And with DRS he’d have had Alonso easily.
— Anthony 🏁 (@ant_iuculano) April 24, 2022
Clearly it isn’t underivable though is it? Did George Russell not bring it home In fourth?
— Ryan (@RyanG33A) April 24, 2022
After the race, the seven-time World Champion admitted that he’s firmly out of the Title picture. However, he backs himself to work hard and get the best out of the next races.
Hello Russell got 4th!!!! Maybe call a spade a spade and accept that LH had a superb car+engine for almost a decade and it hid his true skill level.
— CourageousBstrd 🇺🇦 (@MunstersRebel) April 24, 2022
Hamilton’s poor result means that he’s now seventh in the Drivers’ Championship standings. His teammate meanwhile is in fourth position ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Also read: Lewis Hamilton gives up fighting for the 2022 championship after disappointing results in Imola
