Mercedes Wary of Hamilton and Bottas Pushing Racing Guidelines to “Absolute Limit”

During the race at Nurburgring, it was not a pleasant moment for Mercedes when the lights went off. They witnessed their drivers fight side-by-side from the start to turn two of the opening lap.

Though Lewis Hamilton pushed his teammate, Valtteri Bottas off the track while going into turn one, the Finn rejoined the track and made a move on Lewis on the inside of the next turn. During the fight, while both the drivers showed some aggression, they gave each other enough space.

In a video, James Vowles, strategy director at Mercedes, revealed that the team gave both their drivers guidelines as to what they can and cannot do to each other on-track.

He said, “We are privileged to have two racers in our cars that respect each other but want to race hard. They are fighting for the championship, and we have the ability for them to do that. We have provided them guidelines as to what they can and can’t do. And they push it to the absolute limit, as you would imagine because they are racing drivers.”

With the DNF at Nurburgring, Bottas pretty much lost his battle with Lewis Hamilton for the championship. Hence, the Finn will go into the next race weekend with nothing to lose and might try being a bit more aggressive on the track.

As long as the drivers respect each other, they are free to race: Mercedes

James revealed that he was not pleased with the amount of track that Bottas and Lewis used while going into turn one. He said, “Personally, I was a little bit less comfortable with how much track they used. But they gave each other space, both on entry to turn 1, mid, and exit of turn 1 as well.”

“And every time they have raced each other, they have done that. They don’t hit each other. They don’t take each other off the track. And whilst they do that, they are free to race.”

Both Bottas and Lewis have respected each other on-track ever since they were teamed up at Mercedes. But before that, it was a chaotic time for the team as both their drivers, Lewis and Nico Rosberg, would push each other to the limit. The two even crashed into each other on multiple occasions in 2016.

That was when Mercedes imposed to stop them from taking each other out of the races. It was still there when Bottas had joined the team in 2017. On occasions, the team asked Bottas to give up his position to his teammate. But, as years progressed, Mercedes has toned down the number of team orders they give to their drivers.