Mercedes boss explains why his public rebuke of Lewis Hamilton was important

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff rarely speaks up over the radio to communicate with Lewis Hamilton. However, he spoke up to Hamilton and rebuked him twice over the radio in Spielberg during the Austrian Grand Prix.

Wolff reassured that this public call out to Hamilton at the Austrian Grand Prix will not affect his relationship with the British driver's future at Mercedes.

This is what he had to say to the media about his communication with Hamilton:

“No, not at all. You should hear us talking on the phone and meeting each other. That was nothing."

Acknowledging that the team had a bad weekend, he added:

“We have had a bad weekend, all of us in the team, and that just makes us stronger. It was only in the best interest of the driver and the team. Sometimes, there is a certain moment when you need to calm things down but I meant well. We had a lot of discussions about track limits and whether they were enforced or not."

Lewis Hamilton found it difficult to drive the car and criticized the speed of the underperforming Mercedes. He was also quite frustrated with why some of his rivals like Sergio Perez weren't penalized.

The first time, Wolff intervened and said:

“Lewis, the car is bad, we know.”

In his second appearance, the team principal said:

“Just please drive it.”

---

Lewis Hamilton and other drivers who were handed penalties for exceeding track limits

Lewis Hamilton was one of the first ones to be punished by F1 referee Niels Wittich for crossing track limits. Hamilton was found guilty of exceeding track limits more than once, which was originally noted.

The Briton finished P7 and things got worse when he was demoted one place to P8 in the final standings after his five-second penalty was increased to 10 seconds.

Among the others who were demoted were Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Esteban Ocon, Logan Sargeant, Nyck de Vries, and Yuki Tsunoda.

As per the new standings, here are the positions of the drivers after penalties:

• Carlos Sainz (P4 to P6)
• Hamilton (P7 to P8)
• Pierre Gasly (P10)
• Esteban Ocon (P12 to 14)

Norris rose to P4, George Russell moved up to P7, Fernando Alonso to P5, followed by his teammate Lance Stroll rising to P9.

The race at the Red Bull Ring concluded with Max Verstappen taking the chequered flag, followed by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Red Bull's Sergio Perez coming home third.