Toto Wolff makes awkward Lewis Hamilton comment as F1 star spends time resting after difficult season

It was a tough decision for Hamilton to take, especially given how he'd impressed with his driving on the grid.

But Wolff insists it was the standout performance from Mercedes last term, despite Hamilton ending up with nothing to show for his efforts.

“This might sound weird because we got disqualified, but Austin” he told Mercedes' official YouTube channel.

“We brought an upgrade package that worked, the car was performing well and we were hunting down the leader.

“You could say, ‘Well, you were disqualified for a car that was too low’, but the genuine performance was there and that was an enjoyable weekend.

“I’ve always said that I’d rather have a fast car that we haven’t tuned in the right way. And obviously, you need to finish.

“But that was the [best] weekend overall, seeing the correlation between the wind tunnel and the track was good.”

Mercedes, obviously, have plenty of work to do.

Hamilton was able to finish third in the standings last term, with only Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finishing higher.

Mercedes trail Red Bull, which is something the Stevenage-born racer is fully aware of.

Hamilton is currently spending some time resting ahead of the new F1 season, which is due to commence in March.

And Wolff says Mercedes have a 'huge mountain to climb', though is optimistic about what the future holds.

"It’s to set the expectations right because we have a huge mountain to climb," the Austrian admitted.

"There’s a team that is so successful and we have a big gap to close.

"At the same time, I believe we’ve taken some proactive steps to close that gap.

"Is it going to be good enough? I don’t know, but we’re going to see it in testing and then in the first race in Bahrain.

"I’m super excited. I’d like to start going now.

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"It’s the stopwatch that’s going to tell us what job we’ve done."

Wolff also insists Mercedes have learned some big lessons from the last couple of years.

And he insists his rivals face a huge challenge to compete as the Silver Arrows plot a way to dominate F1 once again.

"We learned a lot," he added.

"The races and the seasons that are difficult are the ones where you learn the most, and we always say, the days we lose are the days our competitors are going to regret because we learn the most.

"I think there are so many lessons that we learned as an organisation, as humans, but also technically that will be beneficial going forward.

"I wouldn’t be able to pick one out, though, because there are so many things that we have looked at that will help us progress over the next year."