Toto Wolff gave the reason for Lewis Hamilton’s silence, saying that he is still coming to terms with the Abu Dhabi GP result.
Hamilton was left disillusioned at Yas Marina when a record-breaking eighth world title was snatched away from him. It would have been fine if it was a clean loss, but the Mercedes driver did everything by the book, only for the final Safety Car rules to be bent.
The fiasco saw Hamilton at a massive advantage post-restart. He was on much older tyres, which handed Max Verstappen a golden chance to overtake him on fresher tyres.
He did just that, becoming world champion and leaving the seven-time champion in complete disbelief. Since then, his silence has been deafening.
Wolff gave the reason for Hamilton’s silence, saying that the driver was too shattered to speak on the matter.
“We are all wavering in emotions and Lewis most of all,” he said, as quoted by Motorsport-total.com.
“He won the World Championship until the last lap, and then everything is taken away from you from one second (to the next). Of course you lose faith because you can’t understand what has just happened.
“The silence is there, of course, because he simply lacks words as well.”
Miserable situation
“Lewis was in the office with me and everyone else involved, and we were also in constant contact over those days,” the Austrian said.
“In the afternoon, we were back in video calls to decide what to do. What I told him before (receiving the knighthood) was that he should take those few hours paying homage to his life’s work so far and his performances, that he should try to take those positive moments with him.
“I think that’s what he did. You could see that too, how honourable that was for him.”
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