Mercedes Team Boss Toto Wolff Unhappy with ‘Armageddon’ German GP

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was gutted to lose out on a potential victory and double podium. In fact, he dubbed it as ‘Armageddon’ because Lewis Hamilton fell afoul of the weather twice and got lucky with Alfa Romeo’s double penalty. However, teammate Valtteri Bottas failed to reach the chequered flag.

Mercedes were celebrating their 200th race and 125 years of motorsport at Hockenheim this weekend. The team personnel were even decked out in retro clothing to honour the landmark events. Sadly for them, there was little to celebrate as Ferrari and Red Bull capitalised.

To make matters even more Mercedes’ president Ola Kallenius was in attendance for the first time as boss. Meanwhile, Netflix has been keenly following Mercedes’ every move for the second series of Formula One’s fly-on-the-wall documentary, “Drive to Survive.”

“This shows that you shouldn’t fool around with stuff, and that you should concentrate on the job,” said Wolff.

“We are not superstitious but we believe in karma. Maybe you get distracted, and maybe you do things differently to how you would normally do them.

“We were celebrating 125 years here, the board are here, and all the Netflix guys are here.

“It was a terrible day for us. With Valtteri crashing out, it ended in an Armageddon weekend for us.”

Thought-provokingly, Lewis Hamilton was of the opinion that Mercedes made a wrong call in the strategy. He blamed them for swapping wet tyres to slicks, causing him to crash on his first lap out of the pits.

With Hamilton in unfamiliar territory, namely the back of the pack with only Williams for company, the onus was on Bottas. The Finn should have ideally salvaged second in a race where Murphy’s Law ruled supreme.

Unfortunately, the Finn hit the wall in the closing stages after losing control while chasing Lance Stroll in the Racing Point.

In spite of securing a meagre two points, courtesy Alfa Romeo’s penalties, Hamilton and Mercedes still rule both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship. Now, both drivers and the team will look ahead to the final race before the summer break in Hungary next weekend and come back stronger after some serious R&R.

“You never go home and say why the f*** didn’t we win, you say why the f*** did we lose,” added Wolff.

“This is certainly going to be the discussion that we will have tomorrow. We are united in the team.”

In the mean time, Red Bull and Max Verstappen are in high spirits after their win in Germany. Ferrari too had a reason to smile as Sebastian Vettel’s stallion thundered through the field to grab 2nd. Granted, they too had a mixed day in the office as they also lost a car, namely Pierre Gasly and Charles LeClerc respectively, but a win and a podium counted for something.

The Hungaroring will be a circuit where qualifying is critical as it is very difficult to overtake there. Hopefully, this trend of exciting races continues on for the rest of the 2019 season and beyond.