‘Team orders went against my nature’

Mercedes principal says decision was taken out of necessity.

LONDON:

Lewis Hamilton has never asked for favoured treatment at Mercedes and the team orders that helped him to third place at the Malaysian Grand Prix were made only out of necessity, according to principal Ross Brawn.

Brawn told Sky Sports F1 in an interview that both Hamilton, the 2008 Formula One world champion, and German teammate Nico Rosberg were told to hold position purely because of a fuel issue. Rosberg, who finished fourth, had repeatedly asked for Hamilton to be told to let him through because the German felt he was faster.

“I didn’t like having to give the orders I gave in Malaysia,” said Brawn. “It’s not in my sporting nature and I think the team has demonstrated many times in the past that we are very happy to let our drivers race each other.

“From a technical perspective, we would have looked extremely foolish if we’d run both cars out of fuel.”

Hamilton was uncomfortable with the situation after the race at Sepang, saying on the podium that he felt Rosberg – who won last year’s Chinese Grand Prix for the team – should have been standing there instead of him.

“He (Lewis) wants the same equipment, the same opportunity and that’s great that he’s got that confidence and approach that he doesn’t want favouritism. I think that’s why Lewis felt a little bit awkward about the situation.”

Non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, the retired triple world champion who is also a shareholder in the team, also criticised Brawn’s actions which he said were wrong from a sporting perspective.

“We need to talk to Ross, if this is the strategy to be used from now on,” said Lauda after the race. The 27 points garnered at the Malaysian Grand Prix represented the biggest single race haul for Mercedes since they took over the Brawn team. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2013.