Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff does not believe the incidents between his drivers in the last two races were linked to his absence from those rounds.
Wolff did not attend the Japanese or Qatar grands prix after undergoing surgery. He is back in the paddock for the first time in a month this weekend.During his absence, the team’s cars collided at the first corner at the start of the last race. Lewis Hamilton retired on the spot while George Russell was able to continue, but having started second ended the race fourth.
The pair also had a close run-in at the Japanese Grand Prix, where Russell accused Hamilton of forcing him wide. Later in the race Russell was instructed to let Hamilton pass him.
Wolff said the team made light the incidents occuring in races where he was away. “We’ve laughed about that too, in the team, but I don’t think it has an effect,” he said.
He suspects the incidents have occured because their drivers have tended to run close together at the front of the field.
“I think we are racing more in the front now,” said Wolff. “I think we have a sniff on how it is looking like, to have no car in front of you, with the McLarens and with Max there.”
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“In any case, we’ll never find out,” he added. “I’m back!”
The team has dealt with the fall-out from the costly collision between its drivers in Qatar, said Wolff. “There were some, let’s say, unpleasant situations that we have talked about,” he said. “And lots of points that we left on the table.
“But there’s nobody more aware than the drivers. Sometimes you need these moments to recalibrate and recondition and avoid similar situations in the future.
“But they’re racing drivers, they compete hard. Your first competitor is your team mate. I see it with a relative relaxed terms”
During his absence, Wolff remained closely involved with the team’s operations, but he admitted he had to take more of a back seat than he wanted to.
“I was completely plugged in, I have a pit wall centre console set up at home,” he said. “So I was part of every briefing or debriefing and the conversations during the race.
“But obviously you’ve got to let the guys here fly the aeroplane because when you’re remote, I need to almost always take myself back a little bit because you’re distant, you don’t look into the faces, you don’t see what’s going on emotionally with the people around you. And you feel in a certain way detached.
“So it’s not something that I enjoy, but it was a necessity.”
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