Formula 1 fans have taken to social media to theorise as to the nature of the conversation between Sir Lewis Hamilton and team principal Toto Wolff after the Briton was eliminated in Q2 at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Mercedes cars were seen suffering immensely from “porpoising” in Imola, costing them time on the straights and in the corners, to the extent that Hamilton and George Russell were forced to lift off the throttle to avoid excessive contact with the asphalt.
Wolff described the Mercedes as “undriveable” as the Silver Arrows continue to endure their “porpoising” woes, which actually seemed to deteriorate on Friday despite the addition of an extra side winglet designed to improve airflow.
READ: Imola GP: Hamilton refuses to divulge what was said in heated discussion with Wolff
Further, neither Briton was able to get the tyres into an optimal window as a legacy of their inability to set consecutive laps after a series of red flags due to a brake fire for Alex Albon and a crash for Carlos Sainz.
It started raining during the red flag period initiated by Sainz’s accident, meaning that Mercedes had no chance of escaping Q2, so they called it a day as Hamilton hopped out of his Mercedes.
Having been complaining of a lack of grip on the radio, the 37-year-old encountered Wolff on his way out of the garage, and there appeared to be a fairly heated discussion between the pair.
“Toto not happy with Lewis???” tweeted one user, sharing a video of the brief exchange.
“For Toto to be shouting at Lewis. Hell is breaking loose right now,” said another, fearing a capitulation at Mercedes as a result of their problems this year.
Fortunately, there was a voice of reason amid the consternation from other hysteric members of the fanbase, affirming that speculation is only going to exacerbate the situation.
“I’d rather wait till Lewis or Toto speak to the media then make assumptions on what they were speaking about in the garage,” they tweeted.
Hamilton expressed his dejection at what was a horrible day at the office for Mercedes.
“Naturally it’s disappointing. [We’ve] come here with optimism and you know everyone’s working really hard at the factory and then things just don’t come together, it’s disappointing,” he said in a post-qualifying interview.
“I think we underperformed as a team today, there are things that we should have done that we didn’t do and… anyway, we’ll work as hard as we can to move up in the sprint race.
“It’s going to be a difficult race but hopefully tomorrow’s better weather-wise and we can move our way forwards.”
He was asked about what was said during his conversation with the Austrian, but he preferred to keep it within the confines of the team’s walls.
READ: Verstappen praises Red Bull’s efforts to improve reliability, warns of jeopardy at Imola GP
“It’s all internal stuff so I don’t want to share that but we’ll just keep working,” he affirmed.
While Mercedes failed to make Q3 at all for the first time since 2012, Max Verstappen grabbed pole in wet conditions ahead of Charles Leclerc, as Red Bull and Ferrari continue to streak away from the eight-time constructors’ champions.