Lewis Hamilton’s explosive row with Toto Wolff: ‘Had to make a point’

After months of silence, Lewis Hamilton has announced he will be back in the Mercedes next season. He broke his silence on social media with a simple post saying: “I’ve been gone. Now I’m back!” Speculation over Hamilton’s future had been growing since he missed out on the world championship in Abu Dhabi last December. Mercedes were left furious after a controversial decision by Michael Masi to let some lapped cars pass the safety car allowed Max Verstappen to move closer to Hamilton and overtake him on the last lap.

The team appealed the race result, but their case was dismissed.

With Hamilton back, the Briton will be hoping he can return to dominance alongside his Team Principal Toto Wolff.

While they have enjoyed great success together, Wolff revealed that he and Hamilton haven’t always seen eye-to-eye in the garage

The Austrian said he used to “bite back” against Hamilton in the early Mercedes years when frustrations boiled over.

Wolff told the Daily Mail in November: “This is Mercedes. We have no place for the genius jerk.

“Even a superstar driver has to respect team values. But with Lewis, we’ve been eight years together now. He’s not an arrogant, spoiled little kid.

“He’s a mature racer who has won seven titles, six with us, so we can take those moments, it’s part of our role to be a trash bin for the driver sometimes.

“In the car, you can get very frustrated and emotional. You are racing at 200mph, in the rain, you have no idea about the overall picture of the race and decisions are being made that you cannot understand.

“In the early years I would bite back at Lewis. He was very young and I had to make the point that I wouldn’t allow the driver to bad-mouth the team, but we’ve been moved on from there a long time.

“Still, I wouldn’t hesitate in the future if a driver talked bad about the team or wasn’t appropriate, I would first deal with it internally and if that didn’t yield results I would take the driver out of the car. On the bench, yes.

“I don’t think that would ever be Lewis. He’s a team member, not a contractor, a driver that comes and goes. We’ve been together since 2013.

“We know each other so well, there’s so much trust and respect.”

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton breaks social media silence with cryptic six-word post

Despite the fact that Mercedes have dominated Formula 1, Wolff believes anyone can emerge as the new top team in 2022.

Wolff said he “wouldn’t write off a single team” that started development early.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner has admitted he has some concerns that the title fight could put Red Bull on the back foot in the early part of this season.

The sport set for big changes going into the 2022 season, as new regulations will result in very different cars.

The changes will include a cost cap and an aerodynamics development sliding scale that favours teams who finish lower in the standings.

Regulations include other changes – a new, more “sustainable” synthetic fuel mixture will be used.

There are heavier and more robust tyres, 18-inch wheels and the return of wheel caps.

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Earlier this week, Haas became the first team to reveal their car for the upcoming season.

Haas, who will once again run Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, finished 10th in last year’s championship, and were the only team not to score.

Owner Gene Haas said: “It’s that time of year where you’re naturally optimistic that the hard work and effort of everyone will translate to a competitive entry on track.

“We made the decision back in 2020 to really channel time and resources into the VF-22, foregoing anything track-related for 2021 – which wasn’t easy to watch. Hopefully that decision bears fruit and we return to challenging for points and taking something from the weekends.”