F1 News
Team orders Mercedes criticised: "Maybe this was a staged show"
It was Max Verstappen who dominated last weekend, and in fact throughout the triple header. Lewis Hamilton certainly wasn't fast enough last weekend and was even given team orders by Mercedes during the race to let teammate Valtteri Bottas past.
The Finn was faster at that moment and was therefore let past Hamilton. Norris came closer per lap and could have overtaken Bottas behind a less fast Hamilton. Despite that it remains a remarkable move of Mercedes according to Jolyon Palmer. This he says in the BBC F1 podcast.
"He had damage at the floor, but the team order from Mercedes to let Bottas past was questionable. I can understand Mercedes doing it in a normal race situation, but in this situation it was not logical. Bottas is not going to win the championship this year, Hamilton might. So it was a strange decision."
Mercedes should have been more aggressive with Hamilton
At least, the Briton thinks so. "I would have tried harder. Norris was never really on Bottas' tail when the team order came. It's one thing to say 'you can fight with Norris', but it's another thing to then let Bottas go past Hamilton and put yourself in a worse position in terms of the championship. I can't remember a time in the history of F1 where the team competing for the championship makes a call like that."
Jack Nicholls says in the same podcast that he thinks there may have been an underlying motive behind last Sunday's action. "Maybe this was a staged show to show that team orders are not always in Hamilton's favour. Maybe it was to give Bottas a bit of a feeling that they do support him when needed."
Either way, it cost Hamilton a lot of points in the battle for the championship. He dropped from second to fourth and saw his gap to rival Verstappen only increase.