BAKU, Azerbaijan — Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has confirmed Lewis Hamilton was free to attack teammate Valtteri Bottas for victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton was Bottas’ only real threat over the 51 laps of the Baku City Circuit and got alongside his teammate for the lead in the opening two corners, only to see Bottas get a better exit from both and retain the lead. Hamilton managed to get within a second of Bottas towards the end of the race, giving him the advantage of the DRS overtaking aid on the back straight, but failed to get close enough to attempt a move.
As Hamilton closed in on Bottas with two laps remaining, Wolff was seen using his team radio, but he said he did not talk directly to the drivers and was not issuing team orders.
“The moment you talk to the drivers, it’s open [to be used on the TV feed], so everybody can hear that,” Wolff said. “But then obviously you have the intercom, which is only an internal line, but I was not talking to the drivers.
“If I push the driver button — I know myself — so I’m not giving myself permission to talk to the drivers, because I’m getting emotional and then sometimes I regret what I say. So, no, I have never talked to the drivers directly in the race.
“It was more a discussion with the group of strategists on the pit wall. It was a discussion on whether [Sebastian] Vettel would actually come close, whether we would save the engine. It was about whether [Charles] Leclerc or [Max] Verstappen would go for fastest lap. It was more an overall discussion.
“We acknowledged that it could get a little bit racy at the end, but we didn’t talk to them.”
Asked if he would have intervened had the drivers gone wheel to wheel in the final few laps, Wolff added: “No, [we would] let them race.
“I think they are both very experienced. They know that racing must be clean. You see lap one — lap one was very clean, and this is a track where you mustn’t take crazy risks, because it could lose both of the cars, and they know that.”
Hamilton added that he left an extra margin for error while fighting with Bottas on the opening lap and would have been much more aggressive had it been a driver from a rival team.
“It is very difficult, ultimately you always have to remember when you’re a team as a big as this, you’re the only one,” he said. “Selfishly I could have pushed a lot harder, I could have gained, he would have lost and maybe lost to a Ferrari so while I wanted to overtake, I had to be cautious so we could block the front row.
“We did that and sometimes that is a sacrifice you have to make if you want to win. If it was a Ferrari there [next to me], it would be different. It’s how it will continue in year. Valtteri and I have always had respect for each other.
“We discuss it before the race. We’re real gentleman.”