Wolff: Hamilton 'needs the enemy' to be at his best in title run-in
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton will take the Formula 1 world championship fight down to the wire because he "needs the enemy" to perform at his best
Nico Rosberg struck a potentially decisive blow in the title race by winning the Japanese Grand Prix to extend the points gap to 33, meaning he can afford to finish second to Hamilton in all four of the remaining races and still be crowned champion.
But Wolff believes Hamilton, who has endured a tumultuous week on and off track with his retirement from the lead in Malaysia, poor start in Japan and falling out with certain parts of the media this weekend, is at his best when he is on the back foot.
"It's not over, there's four weekends to go," said Wolff. "Lewis is going to regroup.
"We have seen that - remember when Nico won seven races in a row [over 2015-16] and then Lewis had that winning streak [six races from seven mid-season]
"He is very strong, he needs the enemy sometimes. That's how he functions.
"Lewis functions best when he is under pressure and he has a target.
"I have no doubt this will be an intense fight. It's going to go down to the end."
Wolff believes there is no need to rush into talking to Hamilton off the back of two disappointing weekends, instead giving the reigning world champion time to take stock away from the paddock.
"Just after such a race is not the right moment to put the finger where it hurts," said Wolff.
"We need to calm down and find out what happened, regroup.
"My learning from the last couple of years is that 24 hours later things look completely different than they appear an hour after the race.
"So our main emphasis will be building Lewis up. He is going to come back strong.
"We have 10 days before Austin [the US GP], it's not a rush like last week.
"Lewis in Malaysia was really on a roll, dominating the weekend and we let him down with the engine failure.
"During the week he was OK and then all these things around the press conferences, whether it affects him or not, I don't think so.
"It's just not his priority - I wouldn't put it down to that that his start didn't go well.
"His racing was great afterwards, how he recovered was really exceptional."
Share Or Save This Story
Autosport 75: How Verstappen scored his first F1 win
The supercharged Revolution that has piqued an Olympic legend's motorsport taste
How Radical revamped its record-breaking flagship model
A "better job" or more engine power? Verstappen's Singapore pole unpicked
How the Bahrain GP in Malaysia exposed Red Bull’s hidden resurgence
How Verstappen’s two subtly different laps beat Hamilton in Bahrain GP in Malaysia qualifying
MotoGP Indonesian GP: Bezzecchi leads Aprilia 1-2-3-4; Martin reclaims points lead from Marquez
Marquez protege Quiles wraps up 2026 Moto3 title in Indonesia
Supercars Bathurst 1000: Kostecki and Hazelwood win after leaders De Pasquale and Holdsworth run out of fuel
FIA admits fairness was compromised in Singapore GP sprint qualifying “mess”
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments