According to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, his team should have done a better job at communicating with Hamilton during the 2016 season finale in Abu Dhabi, and let him race his way.
Despite Rosberg finishing P2 and claiming his first (and apparently last) Formula 1 title, his teammate Lewis Hamilton ignored several team orders to speed up, while trying to back Rosberg into the chasing pack.
“In the heat of the moment, sometimes when you make decisions you get them wrong,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1. “In our mind, the way we think, this race is giving us the same number of points as other races and we try to win that one, not considering that there was much more at stake for the drivers.”
“How the race panned out, we should have communicated differently and in hindsight let them race in the way they deemed to be appropriate.”
Therefor, Hamilton will avoid any sanctions for how we handled things in Abu Dhabi as Mercedes will now transfer their attention on finding a replacement for the retired Rosberg.
Despite drivers such as Pascal Wehrlein, Valtteri Bottas and even McLaren’s Fernando Alonso being considered, Wolff made it clear that Hamilton won’t be involved in the decision-making process.
“It is like many other employees. We will give Lewis the information once we’ve come to a point where we think it’s a sensible decision and then inform him.”
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