Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has given his backing to chief strategist James Vowles after the Briton took responsibility for the mistake with cost Lewis Hamilton victory at the Austrian GP.
The reigning world champion was running comfortably in the lead after the early laps at the Red Bull Ring, however, would see his race turn after the team decided not to copy Red Bull and Ferrari and pit under a Virtual Safety Car caused by the retirement of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Realising the situation, the Hamilton aired his grievances over the radio with Vowles replying and apologising for, at the time, likely costing him the race.
Ultimately, a later fuel pressure problem would see the Briton retire for the first time since the infamous engine failure in Malaysia in 2016, yet it was that decision that remained most in focus.
“What I think happened was we were running one and two and controlling the race, and suddenly you see your second car stopping,” said Wolff, trying to offer an explanation. “The VSC came out, we had half a lap to react, and we didn’t. Fact. This is where we lost the race.
“At that stage of the race with the VSC, pitting is probably 80% the thing you need to do. With one car out there against two others, the thinking process that happened was, ‘what would happen if the others pitted a car?’.
“That whole thinking loop I wouldn’t say distracted us, but we spent too much time on that. For me, [this is] the most painful day in my years at Mercedes, worse than Barcelona [2016].”
As for whether he would take action to try and avoid a repeat, that is when the Austrian supported his man on the pit-wall.
“We don’t need to make changes,” Wolff said. “The most important things is to understand why an error happens, and go back into the situation and analyse it.
“I don’t think we would make an error twice. It’s just that the situation is very complex, we are fighting [between] six cars and it’s just a tough situation
“For me, James is one of the best ever, and it needs guts to go out there and say in front of millions of people and say, ‘That was my mistake, no you can still do this, with the car you have’.”
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Motivation was claimed to be the main reason behind Vowles’ radio message to Hamilton, however, Red Bull boss Christian Horner disagreed, suggesting he was simply made a scapegoat.
“It’s always difficult to know the intricacies of other teams but the one thing you have to do as a team is win and lose as a team,” he told Motorsport.com. “Certainly our philosophy is that as a team, it’s collective responsibility rather than an individual.
“Of course there has to be accountability, but it’s something that’s dealt with in the right environment, behind closed doors, and not in a public forum.”
The Briton also wondered why Mercedes felt the need to try and re-energise their driver.
“I have never worked with Lewis and I don’t know what makes him tick, but it’s a fairly bizarre thing to need somebody to throw themselves under the bus to motivate a driver to go faster from fourth back into the lead,” he added.
