Mercedes made an "idiotic mistake," reckons Wolff as he offers apology to Hamilton
Having displayed an encouraging performance all through the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton endured an early exit in qualifying, which has prompted Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff to apologised to the 105-time F1 race winner.
With the entire field having found big improvements in the closing stages of the first qualifying segment, the seven-time world champion found himself in the drop zone. He was on his final push lap, and was on course to put in a good enough time that would get him through to Q2, but he came upon a slow Kevin Magnussen in the Haas.
The Dane driver moved to the side of the track to get himself out of the way of Hamilton, but doing so, he ran over a bollard which rolled back on to the racing line. Hamilton then ran over the bollard which got stuck under his front wing which saw him lose valuable time, and he eventually was eliminated in Q1.
The unfortunate incident could have not come at a worse time as Hamilton is completing his final outing with Mercedes, and he has appeared to be much more comfortable behind the wheel of his car than in previous rounds.
Speaking of the incident on Sky Sports F1, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff added: "I just need to apologise to Lewis. Also to everyone in the team that worked so hard to making it a great end for him. He was the quicker guy with that kind of setup that we chose on the car – also to experiment for next year – and we totally let him down.
"An idiotic mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable. I’ve rarely 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.”
In recent rounds, Mercedes often played the risky strategy of sending their drivers onto the track in the last possible moment in a bid to enjoy the best track conditions. However, it proved a mistake today with a huge traffic forming on the track in the dying moments of qualifying.
“I think we were lucky that both of them [Russell and Hamilton] wrestled their way through the other traffic and maybe without the bollard it would have worked.
"But you don’t risk so much in a Q1 where we had easily the pace to make it out and 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 dilettante mistake, and that’s just…it doesn’t ruin all the legacy that we have with him but I can only say sorry to him.”
