Toto Wolff makes Lewis Hamilton comparison to Norris Dutch GP heartbreak

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said it is a “pity” to see Lando Norris suffer the “blow” which his championship hopes took, following his Dutch Grand Prix DNF.

Wolff is no stranger to seeing such a development in the title race, as he recalled Lewis Hamilton’s reliability misfortune in Malaysia 2016, and how it impacted his relationship with Hamilton as Nico Rosberg went on to become champion that year.

Lando Norris DNF compared to Lewis Hamilton in Malaysia 2016

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

It looked like the familiar F1 2025 story of a McLaren one-two was to repeat itself at the Dutch Grand Prix. But, as Norris set about chasing down team-mate and Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri, disaster struck.

A puff of smoke coming from an F1 car is never a good sign, and indeed, that sighting was soon followed by Norris bringing his MCL39 to a stop. After three wins in his last four grands prix, Norris had brought himself right into title contention. After that Dutch GP DNF, he is 34 points behind Piastri with nine rounds to go.

In an era of Formula 1 where impeccable reliability has become the norm, a few gremlins have crept into Mercedes-powered cars this year. Kimi Antonelli’s retirement at the Spanish GP – plus multiple issues for Williams – have been far from ideal.

Fernando Alonso was forced to retire his Aston Martin in Monaco, with McLaren the final Mercedes-powered team left standing before Zandvoort.

Asked if the same issue has been impacting Mercedes-engine teams, or different problems, Wolff told the media, including PlanetF1.com: “No, they’ve been different.”

In reference to Norris’ misfortune, he added: “In that case, we don’t know whether it was a pure chassis failure yet. We know it was an oil leak.

“But independent of that, it’s a pity when you lose a car, or when a car DNFs that’s fighting for a championship in such a close circumstances, and it’s independent whether that car either didn’t have any failures or the team didn’t have any.”

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris head-to-head in F1 2025

? F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

? F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

For Wolff, Norris’ retirement was a flashback to the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix.

There, Hamilton’s engine failed while he was out front. The end result was that Rosberg extended his championship lead to 23 points, after crossing the line P3.

“We had Lewis [in] Malaysia, with a failure that cost him 25 points and he was in the lead,” Wolff noted.

“So that’s a bit what I saw today.

“The difference is maybe there’s nine races left, so 225 points to collect. Certainly a blow to the championship, but not impossible. That’s tough.”

Wolff delved deeper into the impact of that Hamilton DNF on the Mercedes team, and himself more specifically, as his relationship with Hamilton was affected.

Asked how tough it was for the team to deal with a mechanical failure like Hamilton’s in 2016, at such a crucial point in the title battle, Wolff replied: “Super difficult, because you’re letting a driver down.

“You could say maybe, it’s a long season, and that was a single instance, but yeah, Lewis is doing the job. He’s leading the race. He’s creating a big gap in the championship [sic]. And then he blew an engine. That was tough for him. Was tough for our relationship.

“I think this is when I had the kitchen talk with him. We didn’t speak to each other for a few weeks, until I explained to him that I don’t want a divorce, we just need to talk about this. And I also said I would have handled the end of the season differently today than I did in the past, because I wanted to control it.”

McLaren are heading towards the title double in F1 2025.

Their Constructors’ Championship lead comes in at 324 points over Ferrari, while Piastri and Norris are in a two-horse race for the Drivers’ crown. One driver will become World Champion for the first time.

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