Niki Lauda has backed Lewis Hamilton’s decision to ignore team orders during the Hungarian Grand Prix, insisting he would have done the same.
Hamilton said he would only move over if Nico Rosberg got close enough, but the German never closed the gap to less than a second, which meant the Briton would have had to slow and lose time to Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso ahead.
Lauda says Mercedes panicked under the “stressful conditions”.
“Mercedes has been used to being in the lead and racing against each other, but this race, with the safety car at the beginning and the wet conditions, was a completely different race,” Lauda said.
“So every minute you had to decide something different and in this stress the team told Lewis he should let Nico by because he was on softer tyres and has to come in anyway.
“But in Lewis’s position he was clear that if he had been in the DRS position – Nico one second behind – for sure he would have let him by. But Nico never got that close. Therefore I do understand that Lewis said ‘Why should I stop now in the middle of the circuit to let my team colleague by?’ He is fighting for the championship anyway.
“So from my point of view Lewis was right. And why the call came, this happened out of the panic and we had to make up for what we were losing.”
When he was asked what he’d do in the same situation, he said: “I would have not even answered.”
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