{"id":290393,"date":"2023-09-29T00:34:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T00:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=290393"},"modified":"2023-09-29T00:34:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T00:34:26","slug":"pole-position-hamilton-will-always-be-wolffs-favourite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/racing\/f1\/pole-position-hamilton-will-always-be-wolffs-favourite\/","title":{"rendered":"POLE POSITION: Hamilton will always be Wolff&apos;s favourite"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>POLE POSITION: Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will always be Toto Wolff&#8217;s favourite, so maybe George Russell has to leave Mercedes<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Toto Wolff is thought to favour Lewis Hamilton over team-mate George Russell\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00a0Mercedes boss\u00a0ordered Russell to let Hamilton pass in\u00a0Suzuka last weekend<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Red Bull to stick with Sergio Perez despite his wobbles in Max Verstappen\u2019s wake<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It was no surprise that Toto Wolff \u2014 remarkably in contact from home in Monaco rather than in Suzuka \u2014 ordered George Russell to let Lewis Hamilton pass last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Mercedes team being in disarray on several levels, they insist they got this call right. Perhaps they did, though we can never be sure, but it certainly achieved what appeared to be Wolff\u2019s main aim: to look after Hamilton. He finished fifth. He had been running sixth.<\/p>\n<p>Russell finished seventh. He had been running fifth.<\/p>\n<p>Wolff\u2019s intervention came when Russell, the only man on a one-stopper, was battling to maintain his position on tyres 10 laps older than Hamilton\u2019s with eight laps remaining.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton, with Carlos Sainz on his tail, wanted to be let past Russell. Russell wanted Hamilton to stay behind him until the last lap so they could resist the Ferrari man\u2019s charge together.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/29\/00\/75957943-0-image-a-51_1695943451977.jpg\" height=\"905\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Toto Wolff is thought to favour Lewis Hamilton over Mercedes team-mate George Russell<\/p>\n<p>This spat followed a hard, wheel-to-wheel battle earlier in which Hamilton bared his teeth. It was a borderline fair scrap that hinted at an increasingly lively rivalry between the pair that might be hard to prevent escalating.<\/p>\n<p>But back to the incident in question. Hamilton warned: \u2018We\u2019re going to lose both of these positions.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>After some fraught radio exchanges, Hamilton was reassured: \u2018George has been instructed, we will swap positions into Turn One.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Russell made his case: \u2018Why don\u2019t we invert on the last lap and he just stays in DRS like last week (referring to Singapore), unless he\u2019s fighting for a bigger result?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It\u2019s an instruction, George,\u2019 he was told emphatically. \u2018Swap positions.\u2019 He did.<\/p>\n<p>The Mercedes\u2019 case \u2014 widely accepted after PR spinning afterwards, though not clear enough at the time to strategists as they debated what to do prior to Wolff\u2019s executive decision \u2014 was that at Suzuka, with overtaking easier than in Singapore, Sainz would pick off both Silver Arrows unless Russell let Hamilton past. (Sainz passed Russell in due course, but not Hamilton.) They say the result helped them to maintain second place in the constructors\u2019 championship, albeit by a reduced 20 points over Ferrari.<\/p>\n<p>There is logic to some of this. But it is difficult not to think Wolff favours Hamilton. He is always visibly more pleased by his success than Russell\u2019s. He bigs Lewis up at every opportunity: last year he poured so much treacle into his ear over the radio it was sickening. If you doubt this, think how he only recently agreed to give Hamilton a pay rise to \u00a350million a year for two further seasons, taking him to the end of his 41st year.<\/p>\n<p>Fair enough, you might say \u2014 Lewis is the seven-time world champion and George has one win to his name. If so, well, fair enough indeed!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/29\/00\/75957955-0-image-a-52_1695943501872.jpg\" height=\"524\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Russell was ordered to let Hamilton pass at the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend<\/p>\n<p>But it remains true that Russell is No 2 in his boss\u2019s affections. Wolff, the businessman, maybe sees more commercial opportunities in one driver than the other.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Wolff either believes in Russell\u2019s abilities to win the title, or he doesn\u2019t. He has nurtured him through the junior ranks but still patronises him, at 25 (shades of Ron Dennis with Lewis at McLaren).<\/p>\n<p>He also pays him a fraction of Lewis\u2019s moolah. Senior figures in the team say, \u2018George is still learning\u2019. Which sounds very much like, \u2018Back in your box, boy\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>In which case, if I were Russell, I wouldn\u2019t be sure Mercedes is the team for me. It is also in a mess. After months of idle talk, they finished 49 and 57 seconds off the pace in Japan, whatever the damn strategy was.<\/p>\n<h2>Now Norris needs his first win<\/h2>\n<p>Lando Norris is cresting the wave of McLaren\u2019s resurgence brilliantly, up against a very able rookie team-mate in Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n<p>The one thing the 24-year-old Briton has yet to achieve, and which will give him a major boost of confidence if and when he does, is a win. His fellow young Brit George Russell has got himself over that line, once in Brazil last year.<\/p>\n<p>Norris\u2019 fine second place in Japan suggests he can climb on to the top step. The knack is to be on the spot if anything goes wrong with Max Verstappen\u2019s expert use of a fine Red Bull. As Carlos Sainz showed with his intelligent drive to victory in Singapore.<\/p>\n<h2>Too many races<\/h2>\n<p>The madness of a 23-race season \u2014 a product of American owner Liberty Media\u2019s financial targets \u2014 is underlined when the fare is a one-way procession.<\/p>\n<p>You can have too much of a good thing. You can have very much too much of a bad thing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/29\/00\/75957711-0-image-a-50_1695942928378.jpg\" height=\"357\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Red Bull are set to stick with Sergio Perez and the Mexican is right partner for\u00a0Max Verstappen<\/p>\n<h2>Red Bull right to stick with Perez<\/h2>\n<p>Red Bull are to stick with Sergio Perez for next season, according to several Pole Position sources. That is the right decision despite the Mexican suffering wobbles in Max Verstappen\u2019s wake.<\/p>\n<p>To ditch him now would create unnecessary upheaval in a team producing everything it needs: they have won the constructors\u2019 title with six races to spare.<\/p>\n<p>Perez\u2019s record is far from poor \u2014 he has won twice and finished second four times. There is also a lack of alternatives right now. And, anyway, history suggests that pairing Verstappen with a young gun doesn\u2019t work. The balance Perez provides within the team is almost dead right.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/formulaone\/article-12573435\/POLE-POSITION-Seven-time-world-champion-Lewis-Hamilton-Toto-Wolffs-favourite-maybe-George-Russell-leave-Mercedes.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>POLE POSITION: Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will always be Toto Wolff&#8217;s favourite, so maybe George Russell has to leave Mercedes Toto Wolff is thought <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/racing\/f1\/pole-position-hamilton-will-always-be-wolffs-favourite\/\" title=\"POLE POSITION: Hamilton will always be Wolff&amp;apos;s favourite\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - 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