Mercedes had a mixed qualifying session on Saturday at the Dutch Grand Prix. George Russell qualified an outstanding third while Lewis Hamilton qualified all the way down in 13th. As a result, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was far from happy. In an interview with The Race after the qualifying session, the Austrian vented out his frustrations against Fernando Alonso and the stewards, and pointed out the injustice that Hamilton faced.
The 51-year-old was furious as he believed that the stewards should have penalized the Spaniard for “impeding” Hamilton. While expressing his frustrations, Wolff got creative as he compared people defrauding taxes to drivers getting away with impeding when they know that they will not “go to jail“.
Toto Wolff slams stewards for injustice towards Lewis Hamilton
While speaking to The Race after the Dutch GP qualifying session, Toto Wolff said (as quoted by soymotor.com), “The blocking on the track is quite ugly to see. I don’t know if it has become a bit of a pattern, maybe it’s that people don’t care or because they already know that they (stewards) are not going to penalize them. The answer is that if you penalize, you sanction. If you know that you are not going to go to jail for defrauding taxes, then you defraud“.
The Austrian then went on to point out how Lewis Hamilton was the victim of this injustice. The 51-year-old claimed that Fernando Alonso “bothered” the Briton during the qualifying session by clearly impeding him. Hence, he believes “some need to open their eyes“.
A mixed-up grid and all to play for on Sunday! 👀#DutchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/WTsgcPs8UW
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 26, 2023
Wolff then also expressed his frustrations with Yuki Tsunoda, who did receive a three-place grid penalty for impeding Hamilton. The Austrian believes that both these moments cost the seven-time world champion from finding the time he needed to get into Q3. However, interestingly Hamilton did not believe that it was the impeding that cost him time.
Hamilton blames the Mercedes car for failure to qualify into Q3
Instead of blaming the impeding, Lewis Hamilton blamed the Mercedes car for his failure to get into Q3. “Just struggled with the balance of the car. The car was very unstable. There’s [a] lack of grip,” he explained in an interview on F1 TV. Additionally, he also explained the changes that were made to his and George Russell’s cars.
Hamilton believes that the changes worked for his Mercedes teammate but did not help him get the results he wanted. Since Hamilton qualified all the way down in 13th, he will have it all to do if he is to clinch a strong points-scoring finish.
