Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has been slammed by fans of Lewis Hamilton, following the Belgian Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday.
Hamilton had shown strong pace during the sprint race; however, his Saturday afternoon was tarnished following a collision in the final sector with Sergio Perez.
The seven-time World Champion tried to go side-by-side with the Red Bull driver, something which resulted in contact.
Hamilton ran slightly wide and hit Perez’s sidepod, piercing a hole in it as a result.
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This caused the 33-year-old to retire from the sprint, whilst Hamilton initially went on to finish fourth.
The 103-time race winner was slapped with a five-second time penalty for causing the collision though, demoting him to seventh.
As well as that, the FIA gave Hamilton two penalty points, which are now on his super licence.
Oddly, Mercedes decided not to appeal the penalty, despite Hamilton having been convinced that it was just a “racing incident”.
The Silver Arrows chose not to appeal the penalty as it was only the sprint race, where very few points were up for grabs.
Hamilton’s fans weren’t pleased with Wolff opting not to challenge the penalty, with one of the 38-year-old’s followers having hit out at Wolff for not having “his drivers back”.
“Lewis got 2 penalty points on his record but Toto says it doesn’t matter,” said @F1_Jordan on Twitter.
“Once again it’s nice to see he has his drivers back and is definitely not at all only in this for his own financial gain.”
Several fans agreed with the view that Wolff is a problem at Mercedes, with one fan admitting that the Silver Arrows won’t win again until the Austrian has left.
“Mercedes aren’t winning anything until they get someone serious in charge who actually cares about backing his drivers,” said @WillRM54.
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“Man owns billion dollar racing business for financial gain?? Jesus I’m shocked,” commented @ShaneHunt734175.
“Toto was featured on a Forbes issue being crowned after hitting a Billionaire status,” added @Ulwazie.
“The interest of his drivers and team are second and third, he cares more about how he looks in the media than anything.”