Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport executive director Toto Wolff and technical director James Allison lashed out at Scuderia Ferrari following the 10th race of the 2018 Formula 1 season, the British Grand Prix.
From start to finish, the British Grand Prix, the 10th race of the 21-race 2018 Formula 1 season, was full of drama. That drama began on the first lap of the 52-lap race around the 18-turn, 3.661-mile (5.891-kilometer) Silverstone Circuit in Silverstone (part Northamptonshire and part Buckinghamshire), England, United Kingdom.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton started the race from the pole position, but once the race began, Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas passed him for first and second place, respectively.
Then Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen attempted to pass Hamilton for third place. In doing so, Raikkonen made contact with Hamilton, which sent Hamilton spinning and caused him to drop all the way back to 18th place.
Here is a video of this collision.
Raikkonen was issued a 10-second penalty for causing this collision. Thanks to two safety car periods and a solid tire strategy, Hamilton managed to rally back and finished the race just 2.264 seconds behind race winner Vettel in second place, and Raikkonen finished in third, so the first-lap spin that Hamilton experienced did not really have all that much of an effect on the outcome of the race.
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However, a Ferrari driver has now spun out a Mercedes driver on the first lap of a race twice in the last three races. Vettel started the French Grand Prix in third place and spun out Bottas, who started the race in second. Vettel was given a five-second penalty for causing this collision. He rallied to finish in fifth, but Bottas finished in seventh.
The fact that this has happened twice in the last three races as Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff and technical James Allison livid to the point where they have stated that they believe the recent incidents caused by the Ferrari drivers are either “deliberate or incompetence”.
Here is what Allison had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.com.
"“Do you think it is deliberate or incompetence?”"
Here is what Wolff had to say about the matter, according to ESPN.
"“A racing incident. Unfortunate because Le Castellet first time we got taken out and now it is the second time we got taken out. It is a lot of constructor points. In [technical director] James Allison’s words, ‘do you think it is deliberate or incompetence?’. So this leaves us with a judgement.“Our team did an amazing job this weekend, we have so much support and so much pressure for us all. Interesting tactics I would say from their side, but we will do what we can to fight them and improve in the next races.”"
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What are your thoughts about what Toto Wolff and James Allison had to say about the recent incidents caused by the Ferrari drivers? Are they right? Regardless, are they right to publicly state that they believe those recent incidents are either “deliberate or incompetence”?