Formula 1

Championship momentum 'bouncing between' Hamilton and Rosberg, says Wolff

Published Nov. 15, 2016 1:56 p.m. ET

Adam Cooper

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that the winning momentum continues to bounce back and forth between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as the title battle approaches its conclusion.

Hamilton’s win in Austin has given the Briton a huge boost, but Rosberg still has the upper hand on points, and can take the title in Mexico.

“It keeps changing,” said Wolff. “Nico was very strong in Singapore, Lewis was very strong in Malaysia, Nico was very strong in Suzuka, and Lewis was very strong in Austin. It keeps bouncing between the two, so I am very curious about how it is going to go.”

Asked who has the most difficult job, he said: “Both. One needs to make sure that he doesn’t DNF and the other needs to score and win. If I could choose I would rather go for Nico, but that is based on probability.

“He is in a difficult position because he needs to look at each weekend at a time how he does, but anyway he needs to make sure that he doesn’t DNF, that is the most important.”

Wolff said Hamilton had recovered from the disappointment of the last couple of races.

“Suzuka was very difficult because coming out of Malaysia, he had just lost the win – 25 points gone, he would have caught up in the championship and then it started unfortunate with the press conference and it went into a spiral. He had 10 days to recover, and come back strong. So I think it was just a matter of time and processing.”

Meanwhile, for the team, the big concern is reliability: “It is very stressful for the guys in the garage because there is a lot of responsibility and a lot of pressure on them – and everything that is being said consciously or unconsciously puts even more pressure. That is not the right thing to do. Our job needs to be to take pressure away because responsibility stays there anyway and accountability – this is how these guy work.”

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