Wolff: No team orders for either driver in Baku race

Toto Wolff says no team orders were issued throughout the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as both Mercedes drivers raced for the race win.

In the closing stages, Lewis Hamilton began to reel in race leader Valtteri Bottas but the Mercedes team principal says neither driver was told to hold position despite Mercedes leading the race in a one-two.

“No, [we] let them race,” he said after the race.

“I think we did, they are experienced, they know that racing must be clean, we see lap one was very clean. And this is a track where we mustn’t take crazy risks because you could lose both of the cars.

“When we talk to the drivers it’s open, everybody can hear them. But then obviously you have intercom which is only an internal line.

“But I was not talking to the drivers. If I push the driver button, I know it myself, so I am not giving myself permission to talk to the drivers because I get emotional and then sometimes I regret what I say. So I never talk to the drivers directly during the race.

“It was more a discussion with a group of strategists on the pit wall. It was a discussion whether Vettel would actually come close, whether we would save the engine, it was about whether Leclerc or Verstappen would go for fastest lap, it was more an overall discussion.

“We acknowledged that it could get a little bit racy at the end, but we didn’t talk to them.”