Lewis Hamilton gets what he wants as Toto Wolff backs him after complaints about engineers | F1 | Sport

Lewis Hamilton has received the backing of Toto Wolff after the seven-time champion publicly called out Mercedes engineers. Ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the British F1 ace slammed Mercedes bosses for not listening to him over the development direction of the W14.

The F1 champion then called for “accountability” as he demanded those responsible “own up”. However, Wolff has backed his star driver as he demanded mechanics sit back and listen to Hamilton’s advice.

He told Motorsport-Total.com: “We are dealing with the big concept of the driver position. That is obviously one of the most important things.

“It’s about where the driver has the best feeling in the car, which is something Lewis expresses very clearly. And when a seven-time world champion has an opinion, it is important to listen to it.”

Hamilton stressed he knew what a “car needs” and had warned mechanics of the possible issues ahead of the new campaign. After admitting his calls were ignored, Hamilton accepted the team had a lot of work to do to get back to the front.

However, he appeared to double down on his assessments ahead of Australia as the 38-year-old stressed he enjoyed telling his team they were wrong. He explained: “I’m one of those people that always likes to be right, but I’m not always right, but, in this scenario, I was right.

“So it was good, it was like – ‘I told you’. It’s a team collaboration. At the end of the day I’m the driver not the designer, but I’m the gateway to the car’s performance. We’re just working on continuously trusting each other in what we try to give back.”

Hamilton appeared to take another bite at the German manufacturer in Melbourne as he cracked a smile about his lack of pace.

Laughing with a reporter, he told Fox Sports Australia: “I don’t like driving not great cars. I don’t like driving a car that’s not the cars we were meant to have.”

Mercedes have had a difficult start to the season with the team still lacking considerable performance compared to Red Bull. Hamilton and team-mate George Russell lacked pace to former midfield team Aston Martin in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

However, they managed to get ahead of the British marque at Albert Park with Hamilton finishing P2.