Lewis Hamilton Could Face Being Suspended by Mercedes After Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton Could Face Being Suspended by Mercedes After Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 

It was the final showdown at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The 2016 season has come to an end and Nico Rosberg has been crowned World Champion however, not all the spotlight is on him – it’s on his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton.

In the latter stages of the race, we saw Lewis Hamilton slow down with his team radioing through to suggest he “pick up the pace” and also telling him the lap time targets to which Hamilton replied “I suggest you let us race.”

Continuing to cruise round the corners, he took control of the situation with the team questioning his times again – “Why are you slow? Currently unsafe to Vettel.”
(The Ferrari driver picked up a lot of pace after his pit-stop/tyre change, putting a lot of pressure on the Mercedes drivers ahead. )

Not replying to the team, the pit-wall crew started to feel the pressure from Ferrari which eventually led to matters being ‘handled’ by Paddy Lowe who spoke over the radio to Hamilton – “Lewis, we need you to pick up the pace to win this race. That’s an instruction.“

Hamilton simply replied – “I’m actually in the lead right now, Paddy.“

Once the race had ended, the drivers spoke to the media – including Hamilton and Mercedes Team Boss, Toto Wolff on the tactics and the race overall, here’s what they both had to say.

Hamilton – “I don’t think I did anything dangerous today. I was in the lead, I’m fighting for the championship so I control the pace – those are the rules.”

“I genuinely didn’t do anything to hurt the team or the brand. The title was down to me and Nico today but for some reason, they (the team) still felt the need to make those comments”

Wolff – “Undermining a structure in public means you are putting yourself before the team. It is very simple.”

‘The other half of me says it was his only chance of winning the championship and maybe you cannot demand one of the best drivers, if not the best, to comply in a situation where his instincts do not allow him to comply.”

“It’s about finding a solution about how to deal with this in the future – I’m going to sleep on this overnight and come up with a solution.”

Toto was also asked is Hamilton could be facing any type of punishment or even suspension, he simply replied – “everything is possible.”

Now whilst things are looking slightly unstable for the Mercedes Crew – the RedBull’s didn’t see any problem with how Hamilton handled the situation.

Christian Horner – On Hamilton “I wouldn’t have expected him to do anything different. He played completely within the rules. Winning the race wasn’t going to be enough for him – he needed cars between him and Rosberg and if he’d charged off into the distance, he wouldn’t have had that.”

Verstappen echoed his boss’ opinion saying he “would have done the same” – you can see the full interview from Verstappen in this post right here.

We’ll keep you updated as it happens….

The Formula 1 Girl 🙂

xxx