Mercedes boss Toto Wolff thinks Lewis Hamilton’s five-second penalty for a late collision with Alex Albon at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix was “too harsh.”
Hamilton was struggling to stay second with Albon after the final period of the safety car race when they faced each other on the right turn at Turn 4, as the Red Bull driver tried to pass by on the outside.
The commissioners investigated the incident and decided that Hamilton should have given Albon more space.
It came after Hamilton received a three-place grid penalty less than an hour before the start for a yellow flag violation in qualifying that he was originally exonerated, following a Red Bull protests.
Hamilton finished second on the road in Austria, but the five-second penalty meant he placed behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and McLaren’s Lando Norris in corrected time to fourth place.
However, Wolff felt that Hamilton could not have done anything different since he was already in full gear with his leadership.
“Stewards are always in a difficult position to make the right decisions,” Wolff said later.
“I think today was a bad day for Lewis and a bad day for the team.”
“Obviously, the three grid position penalty he received in the morning, with Red Bull digging a different camera angle, you have to take it on the chin, and it is what it is.
“Later in the race, I would definitely say that, from my perspective, the five seconds were too hard. We watched the video now a couple of times.”
“Lewis had a complete block on the corner. Albon had about 40% of the way left to make the corner and it was different from lap one: where Lewis had to back out of Albon by pushing Lewis.”
“So, in my opinion, [the penalty] not justified.
“But I recognize the complexity of the job, of making the right decisions. Some go for you, others go against you.”
Albon calculated that the crash with Hamilton cost him an opportunity for his first victory in the F1 race, and Red Bull boss Christian Horner said Hamilton was “clearly “guilty of the incident, It came after Hamilton also received a five-second penalty for hitting Albon in a turn at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
“Upon restarting, Alex beat Lewis and inexplicably for the second time in three races, Lewis hit him and pulled him out of the race,” Horner said.
“It was clearly a misjudgment by Lewis for which he received a penalty, but that still affects Alex deeply.”
“Then we had to remove the car with what appears to be a PU problem, which will now be investigated.”
“It is very frustrating to get out of this race with a double DNF and no points, when we could have been in a position to win.”
“The positive is that we seemed to have a competitive race, but we still have a little bit of a rhythm to find before next weekend.”
Hamilton also received two penalty points for the collision to compound a bad day for the reigning world champion.
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