Wolff rails over ‘idiotic, inexcusable’ strategy after Hamilton’s Q1 elimination · RaceFans

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was furious over the team’s strategy in qualifying which contributed to Lewis Hamilton’s elimination in the first round of qualifying on his final appearance for them.

Both Mercedes drivers were among the last to start their final flying laps in Q1 and had to find themselves space in traffic. Hamilton lost time behind Jack Doohan’s Alpine.

However he was on course to improve his time until he encountered a bollard in turn 14 which Kevin Magnussen knocked in his path. Hamilton’s car picked up the bollard, impairing its performance, and he missed the cut for Q2 by less than a tenth of a second.

Afterwards Wolff admitted the team had let Hamilton down with their strategy. “I just need to apologise to Lewis also to everyone in the team that worked so hard in making it a great end for him,” he said.

“He was the quicker guy with that kind of set-up that we chose on the car, [which was] also to experiment for next year, and we totally let him down.

“It was an idiotic mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable. Inexcusable. I rarely have been so down about what has happened. Maybe it summarises the last races we had with him, but this is the worst part of it because… it was just idiotic.”

Wolff said the team’s approach to Q1 had been too risky. “We were lucky that they, both of them, wrestled their way through the other traffic. And then, maybe without the bollard, it would have worked.

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“But you don’t risk so much in a Q1 where we had easy the pace to make it out there. And then our most valuable racing driver ever, the most valuable and greatest driver of this sport, gets out in Q1 because we make a mistake. A dilettantic mistake that doesn’t ruin for all the legacy we have with him, but I can only say sorry to him.”

Aside from his second place finish at Las Vegas, Hamilton has had a poor run of results during his final races as a Mercedes driver. Wolff said it was especially galling that the mistake appears to have cost him the chance to go out on a high.

“His pace was there. We would have had a real go for a podium, I guess. He was P3 this morning. And now it’s pretty much impossible from where he comes.”