Mercedes Non-Executive Chairman Niki Lauda believes the team should now back Lewis Hamilton’s bid for the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship against Sebastian Vettel.
The British driver moved to within seven points of the four-time world champion with his fifth victory of the season last weekend at Spa, while his teammate Valtteri Bottas fell back after disappointingly finishing fifth.
The two-time race winner insisted after the race that he remains in the title picture despite the 41-point gap, though at the same time conceded he would be willing to comply if Mercedes did take the No. 1 and No. 2 driver route to battle Ferrari, something the Austrian legend claims should now be done.
“This giving away of points must stop now,” he insisted. “I was champion by half a point, so I know exactly how important every single point is when you count them in the end.
“I know exactly what we need to do. Bottas did not have a strong weekend at Spa so it is already clear that Lewis has a better chance for the championship. If Lewis had not given away those three points in Budapest, he would now be only four points behind Vettel,” Lauda pointed out.
Motorsport boss Toto Wolff has signalled nothing will change for at least one more race, however, revealing the situation is being monitored in the best interests of both drivers.
“You can only beat an opponent like Ferrari when everything fits,” he claimed. “We do want to keep ourselves open for all the options as long as possible and we also know that there is no manual for dealing with these problems.
“Ferrari has the luxury of one driver being clearly ahead of the other, so for now we will decide on a race by race basis,” he added. “Let’s see after Monza.”
As for Hamilton, he is preparing for a titanic tussle with Vettel for the title, believing the way the momentum has swung points to a likely championship decider.
“I can’t predict it, but just from what we have experienced up until now and how close we were [at Spa], for sure it’s how it’s going to be and it’s going right down to the wire,” the triple world champion said.
“I am sure he was hoping I was going to make mistakes, but that was not happening. I think that’s what it can come down to, reliability, it can come down to the pendulum shifting a millimetre in performance either way and it’s down to us, and consistency.”
