Toto Wolff insists that Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will still be allowed to race despite their first lap crash at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport was disappointed to leave Spain without any points having secured a front row lock-out in dominant fashion, but was not laying the blame of the crash on either driver, feeling instead that it was a racing accident, an opinion that was also shared by the stewards.
Wolff wants the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team to put the clash behind them and focus now on getting back on track and to winning ways around the streets of Monaco in two weeks time.
“After all the hard work we’ve put in over the past two weeks it’s deeply disappointing to come away with no points,” said Wolff. “But in my opinion this was a racing incident, with the drivers racing for position, and I don’t want to start blaming one or the other.
“Both Lewis and Nico are upset and we talked with them, looking at the pictures and the data, to determine exactly what happened. By letting the drivers race as we do, this kind of eventuality can happen but we won’t change our approach – we owe it to Formula One and the fans to let them race.
“But today, it was the work of the whole team that finished in the gravel trap, and this isn’t what we want to see happen – both of the boys know how much hard work goes into each race weekend and that they have the responsibility to bring that home.
“We have matured as a team over the past years, so we will be able to move on from this and, hopefully, fight back in a positive way in Monaco.”
