Aug.13 (GMM) The spotlight will be on Mercedes’ duelling driver duo once the summer break ends next week.
For Lewis Hamilton, it will be the end of what the Daily Mail has called a “hedonistic holiday”, filled with shirtless dancing on the streets in Barbados, cigar-smoking and reportedly a new romance with the pop star Rihanna.
So given the Briton’s bad outing as he entered the break in Hungary, is boss Toto Wolff worried that Hamilton is going off the rails of his 2015 title focus?
“In these holiday weeks, everyone has the right to be left alone,” he told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday.
“Lewis is very experienced and knows what he can and he cannot do,” Wolff added.
But even Hamilton had admitted that Hungary was one of the most error-strewn races of his entire career, and even apologised to the team.
Wolff said: “In the previous nine races, Lewis did not make mistakes.
“Anyway, he apologised for what was just a bad day. It happens to all of us, but for a sportsman it is different because you see a result that is affected,” he added.
The spotlight will also be on Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg when the action resumes next weekend in Belgium — and not just because his wife’s due date to deliver their first child is reportedly set for next Tuesday.
It will also be the German’s first visit to Spa-Francorchamps since the carbon fibre-crunching collision with Hamilton of 2014, for which Rosberg received all of the blame.
“It was difficult and intense,” he tells Auto Bild Motorsport now.
“But it was also a great lesson,” said Rosberg. “I made mistakes that I will not make the next time.”
