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His comments were "a hand grenade"

20:27, 28 Apr 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has brushed off recent comments from former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone as a "hand grenade" designed to make headlines. Ecclestone had suggested that Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was "not the racer he used to be".

Wolff dismissed the claims stating that his driver had as much desire as ever at the top level of motorsport and that Bernie Ecclestone had been up to his old antics by grabbing the headlines.

"All of us very much respect Bernie, but we have also learned to take the comments with a smile," he said.

"Lewis is remarkably easy with these kinds of things, I think that he sees it pretty relaxed.

"Bernie comes in and throws a hand grenade and it's in the papers, it's great. It's Bernie's way, he got all of you here (into F1) and me, and he made the sport big.

"It's the off-track and on-track narrative and another thing to write about and talk about."

His Mercedes team haven't gotten off to the start to 2018 they were hoping but again, Wolff deflected negative headlines and backed Hamilton.

"How the news is running these days, we are oscillating between exuberance and depression, and back again," Wolff added.

"When things are not going in the right direction it's doom, and when you win two races in a row it's the utter Mercedes dominance destroying the sport.

"Maybe it's somewhere in the middle. We haven't collectively performed on the level we would want to in the last races.

"There were three races we could have won and we didn't, that's a fact. But I still see the fire and the desire to win very much burning in Lewis."